Art News: Britains Turner Prize in Full Swing

Joseph Mallord William Turner Rebecca Warren Deimantas Narkevicius Wins 2008 Vincent Award Tate Pats Itself on the Back, Plans Ahead Old Master Paintings J. M. W. Turner Cary Leibowitz in New York Tate to Lend Turners to the Pushkin

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LONDON, Oct. 4, 2006The Turner Prize 2006 is in full swing at Tate Britain. An exhibition featuring recent and new works by the four short-listed artists kicked off Oct. 3, and the museum will announce the winner on Dec. 4.

This years finalists are Tomma Abts, Phil Collins, Mark Titchner and Rebecca Warren.

Abts acrylic and oil paintings, always 48 cm. x 38 cm., pitch the rational against the intuitive, according to the Tate. She describes her work as a concentrate of the many paintings underneath, each functioning as an autonomous object revealing the visible traces of its construction.

Collins piece, Shandy Lane Productions, perhaps the most controversial in this years contest, features a fully functioning office where researchers interview former reality show contestants who say television tainted their lives.

Titchners Turner Prize installation includes dizzying optical illusions, structures and sound interwoven with messages scavenged from song lyrics, corporate creeds, philosophical treatises and political manifestos.

Warrens work consists of a new series of bumpy, precarious bronze sculptures and wall-based vitrines containing various pieces of garbage collected in and around her studio.

The Turner Prize, established in 1984 and named after British artist Joseph Mallord William Turner, is awarded each year to a British artist under the age of 50 for an outstanding exhibition or other presentation. The four short-listed artists and the winner are chosen by a jury that changes annually.

One of this years judges, journalist and celebrity interviewer Lynn Barber, brought controversy to the contest when she wrote a confessional in The Observer deriding the art exhibitions she had to attend as a judge, calling them mostly bad and banal and saying the experience dampened her enthusiasm for art. She also claimed the nominations submitted by the public were ignored by prize organizers.

This years total prize fund is £40,000, with £25,000 going to the winner and £5,000 to each of the other short-listed artists.

The Turner exhibitions attract as many as 10,000 visitors each year to Tate Britain, and past winners have included conceptual artist Martin Creed (with a bare room containing only a light that switched on and off); Chris Ofili (with a Virgin Mary sculpture made of elephant dung); and Damien Hirst (with a pickled sheep).

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