Winner of Turner Prize 2011 announced by Mario Testino at BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art, Gateshead
Martin Boyce has just been announced as the winner of the £25,000 Turner Prize 2011. With long queues and cold damp breezes greeting the guests at tonight’s Turner Prize, everyone was elated to finally get inside. This year, for the first time in its 27-year history, the Turner Prize was hosted by a non-Tate venue – Gateshead’s Baltic Centre for Contemporary Arts. And, during the course of the exhibition, it has received 110,000 visitors, prompting many critics to herald the occasion as a watershed moment for the Northeast of England.
The four shortlisted artists – Karla Black, Martin Boyce, Hilary Lloyd, and George Shaw – were selected by a jury of leading gallery directors and curators, for exceptional exhibitions in the past year. The prize was established in 1984 to celebrate innovations in British contemporary art, and is awarded annually to a British artist under fifty. It is now recognised as one of the most prestigious awards in the world of art. The internationally-celebrated fashion photographer Mario Testino was the celebrity selected to present this year’s prize.
The art world paused at around 8:20pm for the glitzy envelope opening of one of the art-worlds most coveted awards, the annual Turner prize. The Turner Prize is awarded to new artists with an aim to celebrate younger talent and to focus attention on new developments in the visual arts in Britain. The shortlist of four Artists representing the Jurors decision for this year’s nominees were:
Karla Black’s submission consisted of a monumental mountain range constructed from crumpled sugar paper and polythene, sensually coloured with pastel chalk powders, make-up, soap and bath-bombs.
Martin Boyce’s installation collided multiple Modernist references, from a table designed by Jean Prouvé, and a suspended Cubist ceiling-sculpture based on the work of Jan and Joel Martel, to Art Deco-style vent coverings, and Constructivist, angular leaves.
Hilary Lloyd’s video works, presented on svelte screens with visible cabling in industrial brackets, abstracted mundane features of ordinary life, including high-rise tower blocks, wooden floorboards, and a shirt.
George Shaw documented the stomping ground of his youth – Tile Hill, a post-war housing estate on the edge of Coventry – in a series of glossy but murky paintings made with Humbrol enamel, the medium associated with boyhood model making.
The Turner Prize is by far and away the most widely publicised arts award in the United Kingdom. The prize on offer is not at all a great deal of money which may be expected. The £25,000 prize is often awarded to help an artist develop and move towards the mainstream arts market. The bookmakers odds 2011 from William Hill put Martin Boyce at 11/10 George Shaw 13/8 Karla Black 6/1 Hilary Lloyd 6/1
Mario Testino presents award Photo: ©Thomas Keane ArtLyst
Martin Boyce Accepting the Turner Prize 2011 Photo: © Thomas Keane ArtLyst
Martin Boyce Interviewed Photo: © Thomas Keane ArtLyst
Read our full analysis of the Turner Prize 2011 exhibition
List of previous winners:
2010: Susan Philipsz 2009: Richard Wright 2008: Mark Leckey 2007: Mark Wallinger2006: Tomma Abts 2005: Simon Starling 2004: Jeremy Deller 2003: Grayson Perry 2002: Keith Tyson 2001: Martin Creed 2000: Wolfgang Tillmans 1999: Steve McQueen 1998: Chris Ofili 1997: Gillian Wearing 1996: Douglas Gordon 1995: Damien Hirst 1994: Antony Gormley 1993: Rachel Whiteread 1992: Grenville Davey
1991: Anish Kapoor 1990: NO PRIZE 1989: Richard Long 1988: Tony Cragg 1987: Richard Deacon 1986: Gilbert & George 1985: Howard Hodgkin 1984: Malcolm Morley
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