Turner shortlist
It’s that time of year again. The shortlist for the 2010 Turner Prize has been announced.
What’s the Turner Prize? It’s only the most controversial (and therefore most highly regarded) prize in the contemporary art world.
And by contemporary, I mean absolute cutting edge, avant-garde stuff.
The Turner is run by the Tate Britain, and every year the prize is awarded to an emerging figure in contemporary visual art. The prize is kind of a self-fulfilling prophesy. If you win it, you’re pretty much guaranteed to ‘emerge’ as a major figure in the contemporary art scene.
So, let’s take a look through Turner Prize history, and see how this year’s shortlisted artists shape up.
Shall we?
Here are some of the highlights.
The 1991 prize went to Anish Kapoor.
Does this work look familiar to you? I seem to recall seeing these relatively recently at Brisbane’s GoMA. Looking into the domes, they take on an infinite depth. Pretty trippy, in Kapoor’s usual style.
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In 1993 the prize went to Rachel Whitread for her work, House.
Whiteread made this work by filling a to-be-demolished Victorian house with concrete, then removing its outer shell. I think it’s pretty cool.
The work itself was demolished after only a couple of weeks.
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1995’s prize went to Damien Hirst’s Mother and Child Divided. It features a mummy cow and a baby cow. Cut in half. You can walk through the middle and check out their insides.
I think I’ve talked about these works before. They might seem a little passe now, but let me assure you they were pretty shocking at the time.
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Grayson Perry won the prize in 2003, for an rather beautiful series of ceramics, painted in themes relating to his life.
Perry accepted the prize wearing a dress.
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In 2006, Tomma Abts took out the prize for a series of tiny, meticulously detailed paintings.
I
I am actually currently reading a book entitled Seven Days in the Art World written by sociologist and art historian Sarah Thornton. The book is a series of ‘days’ that Thornton experiences in the art world, including a Sotheby’s art auction in New York, an art fair, and the awarding of the 2006 Turner Prize. It is really interesting. Read it.
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Last year’s prize went to Richard Wright for this gorgeous installation of gold leaf.
Wright pulled the carpet out from under the feet of favourite Roger Hiornes, who covered the walls of a London flat with copper sulphate crystals, which were to gradually grow upon themselves until quietly taking over the entire flat. That’s kind of cool, no?
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This year’s shortlist is made up of just about every possible medium.
Dexter Dalwood, the painter:
Dalwood creates paintings that focus on the life and death of public figures. This is a detail, not the whole work. Sorry.
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Susan Philipsz, the installation artist
This is a sound installation. Phillipsz (let’s all add a ‘z’ to the end of our otherwise uninteresting name) creates art by placing songs from various sources into public areas such as this bridge, bringing something different to an everyday situation.
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Angela de la Cruz, the mixed medium
Described as ‘painterly installations’, de le Cruz makes rather lovely little pieces that I quite like.
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The Otolith Group, the ‘pretentious, academic film artist’ (not my words)
The Otolith group makes film art laden with art historical references. I think they’re being ironically snobby. But they might be being actually snobby. I’m not sure.
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And that is the end. A number of people were surprised that Banksy wasn’t shortlisted this year, because his works have taken on an increasingly clever and innovative tone in the past couple of years. Some say the Turner could do with the excitement Banksy would bring. I like Banksy so I’ll go along with that. Not this year, though, it would seem.
So who’s your money on?
