Turner Prize 2011.
The winner of the Turner Prize, arguably the world’s most prestigious contemporary art award, will be announced Monday, from the Baltic Gallery in Gateshead. Judges will be choosing between installation sculptors Karla Black and Martin Boyce, video artist Hilary Lloyd and George Shaw, a painter.
The award is made each year to a British artist, under the age of 50, for an exceptional exhibition or presentation of their work in the preceding 12 months. Established in 1984, the award wins artists international recognition, in addition to £40,000 prize fund that is divided between the artists with the winner receiving £25,000. Previous winners have included Damien Hirst (1995), Steve McQueen (1999) and Antony Gormley (1994) and Monday’s winner will join this esteemed company.
Up north. The award this year, will be handed out by photographer Mario Testino at the Baltic Gallery in Gateshead, marking the first time in the Prize’s 27-year history that the award has been hosted in a non-Tate venue. Much is being made of this relocation: The move has been welcomed as recognition of the fact that the Turner is a national prize. Hannah Duguid, of The Independent, notes that of the four artists only one is from London. She argued that the move not only reflects the geographical spread of the nominees but that it highlights the growing art presence in the north. The Prize will now be presented at Tate Britain and at a gallery outside London in alternate years. Londonderry has been chosen as the venue for 2013.
The best yet? This year, the often controversial prize, has been well received. Charles Darwent, writing in the Independent on Sunday, said, “I can’t recall a stronger show over the past 27 years, better chosen, better displayed, more poised or grown-up.” This was echoed by Richard Dorment, in The Telegraph, who said just when the “Turner Prize couldn’t get more irrelevant… along comes a first-class shortlist and an exhibition as good as any I’ve seen in two decades.” This year’s exhibits are said to have “helped put the Turner Prize back on the cultural map.”
Who should win? The bookie’s favorite is Martin Boyce, the Scottish sculptor, who describes his work as a “peculiar landscape… a collapse of the interior and the exterior world”. George Shaw, a painter whose biographical paintings present desolate urban wastelands, is a close second. The four finalists speak of their work here and images of their work can be seen here.