ISBN 978-1-902700-43-4
JOHN MOORES PAINTING PRIZE 2010 - THE WALKER ART GALLERY - LIVERPOOL
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Jury
Gary Hume
Photo: Georgie Hopton
Gary Hume was born in Kent in 1962 and lives and works in London and upstate New York, USA. He is renowned for paintings distinguished by a bright palette, reduced imagery and flat areas of seductive colour. Hume first received critical acclaim with a body of work known as the 'Door' paintings. His recent solo shows include Kunsthaus Bregenz (2004) and the Kestnergesellschaft, Hannover (2004). Recent group shows include Tate Britain, London (2004) and Louisiana Museum, Denmark (2004).
Alison Watt
Photo: Marcus Latham
Alison Watt was born in Greenock in 1965 and studied at Glasgow School of Art from 1983-88. From 2006 to 2008, Watt was the Associate Artist at The National Gallery in London, the youngest artist in the scheme's history. Her solo exhibition 'Phantom' (2008) explored her enduring fascination with one particular painting in their collection, Zurbaran's 'St. Francis in Meditation' (1635-9). In 2003, she was shortlisted for the Jerwood Painting Prize and was awarded an OBE in 2008.
Ged Quinn
Ged Quinn was born in Liverpool in 1967. He studied at Ruskin School of Drawing, Oxford and Slade School of Fine Art. He has had many solo shows including 'Utopia Dystopia' at Tate St Ives (2004) and 'My Great Unhappiness Gives me a Right to your Benevolence' at Wilkinson Gallery, London (2007). His painting
'There's a House in my Ghost' was exhibited in the
John Moores 25 exhibition in 2008. He also exhibited work at Tate Liverpool as part of the Liverpool Biennial during the same year.
Goshka Macuga
Photo: Dennis Schoenberg
Goshka Macuga was born in Poland in 1967 and lives and works in London. She studied at Wojciech Gerson School of Art, Warsaw; Central Saint Martins School of Art, London; and Goldsmiths College, London. Goshka Macuga has been nominated for her solo exhibition 'Objects in Relation', 'Art Now' at Tate Britain and her contribution to the 5th Berlin Biennial for Contemporary Art. In 2008 she was nominated for the Turner Prize and in 2009 exhibited work at the Venice Biennale.
Sir Norman Rosenthal
Photo: Royal Academy of Arts, London, © Phil Sayer 2000
Sir Norman Rosenthal was born in Cambridge in 1944 and is a freelance curator and writer. He became Exhibitions Secretary of the Royal Academy of Arts in 1977, where he stayed for 30 years, overseeing loan exhibitions and working with distinguished curators. Sir Norman Rosenthal has already been awarded the highest Honours and Decorations from the Italian Republic, Federal Republic of Germany, French Republic and the Federal Republic of Mexico. In 2009 he contributed an essay to the Anish Kapoor exhibition catalogue which was written to accompany the artist's show at the Royal Academy.
Prizewinners
Exhibiting Artists
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Text - Tim Ellis
'United in Different Guises XXXXIII', Tim Ellis
2009, Acrylic and varnish on cotton and bulldog clips,
202.2 x 135.5 cm
Artist's statement
This painting is part of an ongoing series that shares the same title, 'United in Different Guises', and which are numbered accordingly. The title refers to a proposed shared function. This function sits somewhere between a communicative role and the symbolic. The source imagery used is a mixture of signage and design which is reconstructed to form gendered symbols.
The paintings' scale and material quality mimic the appearance
of flags and banners. By folding, scuffing and gradually ageing the paintings, a suggested utility appears. What is left is an object that questions notions of symbolism and authenticity, allowing the work to function beyond the realms of painting.
Biography
Tim Ellis was born in Chester in 1981. He studied at Liverpool John Moores University 2000-03 and the Royal Academy Schools London 2006-09. He lives and works in London. Group shows include 'The Last Gang in Town' Arena Gallery Liverpool 2006, 'Premiums' Royal Academy of Arts London 2008, ' Falling from an Apple Tree by Mistake' Wilde Gallery Berlin 2008, 'New Sensations' A Foundation London 2009, 'TAG From 3 to 36: New London Painting' Brown Collective London 2010 and 'Newspeak: British Art Now' Saatchi Gallery London 2010. His solo exhibition ' A Foundation for Exchange' was at Primopiano Lugano Switzerland 2010.
http://www.timellis.org/
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Press
THERE are five local artists short-listed for the John Moores Painting Prize this year - four originally from Liverpool and one from Chester. I interviewed them via email for a feature in today's Daily Post but they had so much to say I couldn't fit it all in the piece.
Here then, are their full answers. The Walker is keeping the exhibition tightly under wraps so I was only able to get hold of one of the short-listed works (left) - Refractions (Robert Hooke) by Jason Thompson, who is one of National Museums Liverpool's object dusting team.
JASON THOMPSON
How did you become a member of the object dusting team? What does the job involve? Which venues do you work in?
I have worked for NML for over 12 years now. For the first 6 and a half years I was an attendant and for all but the first 6 months I was an attendant at the Walker.
When I started there I immediately thought how amusing it would be to get my own work into the John Moores so that I could guard my own painting, but was soon disappointed to learn that staff members where not allowed to enter. Attendants spend more time with paintings than anyone, its quite a unique position to be in. The exhibits can become as familiar to you as furniture in your own home.
I was always part-time as an attendant so that I would still have time to paint and a few years ago they wanted to reduce the numbers of part-time attendants, at the same time the job in the dusting team came about and as it was part-time I applied and luckily I got it. Not the most exciting story.
There are only 3 of us (Arthur Roberts and Fiona Campbell and me) and we are all part-time. We work in ALL of NML's museums and galleries in a continuous never-ending cycle. we don't have conservation qualifications but we are trained by conservators to take the dust off the acquisitioned objects and their environments. we use vacuums and brushes and ladders and scaffolds and motorised platforms to get as much dust as we can.
Obviously it is a never ending task, as soon as you clean an area it starts to settle again, but our job is to prevent it from building up so much that it damages the objects. Its simple work, quite monotonous, doesn't pay much and you have to be very careful but the good bit is we get close up access to all the museums artifacts, and my fellow dusters are delightful company!
What was it like to discover you are on the short-list?
It was very exciting and a bit unreal really. Everyone into painting knows its the biggest painting prize. When you enter something as big as this it's a bit of a lottery, you know some people will be picked but the chances of you being among them are so slim. You just cannot predict what the judges will be after so you just do what you can do and hope for the best.
Just getting through to the 2nd round felt like such an achievement. I have a couple of friends from art college days who have been in previous shows and old tutors have been in it, but there have been so many important names involved throughout it's history that it's amazing to have some association with them, however brief. I'm very happy!
What was the reaction of your colleagues?
All my colleagues and friends from work who have known about it have been really great. Hardly any have actually seen any of my paintings but everyone still wished me well and kept their fingers crossed for me when they heard I was in the 2nd round. There are quite a lot of creative, arty types working in non-arty jobs in the museums and galleries and all the painters appreciate what a big deal it is to be chosen for this.
When did you first hear of the John Moores Prize?
To be honest I cannot remember a time when I didnt know what the John Moores Painting Prize was. I must have heard about it when I was a child, but i cant remember. It was probably by being aware of the John Moores and that it was accessible to me in my home town that I became aware of contemporary art in general.
Did the fact that it is run by the Walker make the news more special?
Of course yes. When I was growing up there was no Tate Gallery in Liverpool. The Walker has been an institution to the people of Liverpool for generations. There are bits of art everywhere now but when I was a child the Walker was the only place everyone knew of where you could go to see what I would have called "real" art and the John Moores was when I got to see "real" art by artists who are actually still living!
My earliest memory of seeing paintings was when my dad took me to the Walker, I think it was an Escher show. It means so much to me to have a painting hung in the Walker, and for it to be there as part of a John Moores selection is perfect. Every painter would want to be in it for professional reasons but being born and bred in Liverpool and having worked at the Walker for so long it just means so much personally too. Maybe it's like a band playing a big gig in their home town.
Where do you hope being shortlisted for the prize will lead you?
I have heard people say that being in the John Moores was a turning point for them. I don't know what will come of it, I don't really involve myself much in the local art scene so I am very much an unknown around here as I am everywhere, so it will be interesting to see what its like to get a bit of attention.
I am under no illusions regarding the difficulties of existing as a painter, especially when you aren't based in London and especially in the current economic climate. I'm not expecting it to be like someone waving a magic wand but it certainly can't do me any harm. It's very exciting.
Please would you describe your short-listed painting?
This is where it gets tricky. Its hard to describe a painting properly, especially your own. I wouldn't want to on the whole, they are supposed to be non-verbal experiences, sorry, I know you understand this but it always needs emphasizing... having said that, I like to read what people write about paintings as much as anyone. I'm very glad you said "describe" rather than explain by the way! (I can only describe my methods and materials as I am convinced that if a painting is to have any kind of "meaning" it is to be found in the "DNA" of what it is made from and the way in which it was made.)
My paintings tend to be small. I rely on an intimacy of drawing and smallness helps with that. I use enamel paints mainly, and thick varnish layers. I always paint on wooden panels. Usually, my paintings are slowly built up out of many many layers. They usually take months to achieve what I am after but not always. Each layer is quite considered for a very long time, then the actual painting is quick. Layers of varnish separate the layers like punctuation separates sentences.
I have absolutely no idea what a painting will end up like when I start. If I do have an idea I tend to kill it very quickly or the length of my process suffocates it. Its to do with preserving the fluency of the process of making it. Usually parts get repeated or echoed or copied and a self-generating structure starts to appear. They grow so slowly though that many structures wax and wane in the process. I usually look to natural forms, mainly botanical and anatomical structures, as metaphors to explain how my paintings grow or explain what I am after.
I am fascinated by the feedback processes which are thought to have evolved into the hallucination of consciousness. I have begun to use optical devices as a way of objectifying and mechanising certain procedures and to generate randomness.
I named this painting after Robert Hooke as he was a figure who I am interested in and admire.
Why are you drawn to painting as a medium?
I am drawn to lots of media. I just love to make things in general. I have itchy fingers that like messing about with stuff and doodling. For some reason though painting seems to be the one that "works" for me. It just seems to work with the way my mind works. I like the fact that you dont need to rely on anyone else to do it. I like the stillness in time of a visual image that gradually unfolds (as opposed to the narrative time of, say, a film or piece of music).
The process of visual perception and replication is very interesting and is important in how we form ourselves to exist in the world. If you look at any survey of contemporary painting the variety of what is going on is incredible. It's probably a very good time to be a painter, everything is allowed and there is such a history to build on. Just enough people care and just enough people don't care to make it interesting.
NEAL JONES (Entry: Orange Paving)
Please would you describe your short-listed painting?
The picture isn't easily described, if it was, it wouldn't be worth doing - it is more poetic and mysterious. It's more of a thing really - colours, textures, wooden structure. It is an attempt to represent a quality of space, both ordered and organic, triumphant and collapsed. The colours and forms come from some of the ramshackle details of my allotment garden, where I paint in a greenhouse.
Why are you drawn to painting as a medium?
I enjoy the looseness of it, but also the lack of 'concept'. I like how direct it is, to do and to see.
What was it like to discover you are on the short-list?
Quite shocking really, I thought this was a more difficult painting than last time and I was also expecting worse luck.
When did you first hear of the John Moores Prize?
If you are a painter the John Moores prize seeps in, you catch glimpses of it in the backs of catalogues and you continually keep one eye on it to see what painting is doing now.Â
Did the fact that it is run by a gallery local to you make the news any more special?
I live in London, but I was born in Liverpool and my parents too, so that makes me feel connected and especially happy to return and proud to be involved again.
Where do you hope being shortlisted for the prize will lead you?
I don't think too far ahead, I am happy where I am in terms of the work, if I can continue(buy paint and buy time)- that's great, shows like this I find celebratory and symbolic, but my 'career' is always a mystery.
Breugel Camp by Neal Jones, shortlisted for the John Moores Prize in 2008
TIM ELLIS (Entry: United in Different Guises XXXXIII)
Please would you describe your short-listed painting?
The painting is part of an ongoing series that share the same title 'United in Different Guises' and are numbered accordingly. The title refers to a proposed shared function. This function sits somewhere between a communicative role and the symbolic. The source imagery used is a mixture of signage and design; which is reconstructed to form gendered symbols.
Their scale and material quality mimic the appearance of flags and banners. By folding, scuffing and gradually aging the paintings, a suggested utility appears. What is left is an object that questions notions of symbolism and authenticity, allowing the work to function beyond the realms of painting.
Why are you drawn to painting as a medium?
For the particular work I submitted, painting was the most appropriate medium, it suitted the language I wanted to use. I make both sculptures and paintings that use particular materials to do a job. Painting on a large piece of fabric did that job.
What was it like to discover you are on the short-list?
I was very pleased to be on the shortlist, I thought I hadn't got in as I hadn't recieved anything through post. I only found out because my girlfriend went on the John Moores website to have a look. My acceptance letter is still somewhere lost in London
United in Different Guises XIV, by Tim Ellis
When did you first hear of the John Moores Prize?
I first heard about the John Moores at an early age, my art teacher said that we should all have a look at it. I remember skipping school with a couple of mates to go and see it, sounds a bit geeky but there was something exciting about it, perhaps its diversity. I supose so
Did the fact that it is run by a gallery local to you make the news any more special?
I always went there when I lived in Liverpool, do really know, probably not, it's just good.
Where do you hope being shortlisted for the prize will lead you?
I suppose its one of those things that validates your practice, it's a great show to be in and its had some very good artists in it, It's a privilege to be in it, that's enough I think.
RICHARD HARRISON (Entry: Mountain Peaks)
Please would you describe your short-listed painting?
It is an imaginary abstracted landscape, inspired by trips to Iceland and to the rocky mountains in the US, and to the Laurentian mountains outside Montreal in Canada. Landscape evokes strong emotions, and this painting is intended to do the same. The palette is deliberately restricted to black and white in order to evoke the emotional opposites of light and dark, good and evil, hope and despair, and to hopefully transport the spectator to some "other" space.
Richard Harrison with Triassic (2010)
Why are you drawn to painting as a medium?
Painting is the closest thing I know of to embarking, whilst awake rather than in a dream, on a journey into the void of blank and empty space without actually having to get into a starship or a time machine. The raw canvas, primed and ready, beckons to me and the exploration can begin. Memories are invoked, objets and bodies are observed, imagination is harnessed, and chance and happy accident can play their part.
The paint flows, it takes on a life of its own, and I become part of that "flow", the universal field of infinite potentiality, whereby It is as if my hand is directed by something, I know not what, that is inside of me and yet outside of me.
What was it like to discover you are on the short-list?
It was tremendously exciting as I have been entering the competition, hitherto unsuccessfully, ever since I first heard about it.
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The Shape of Things to Come
When did you first hear of the John Moores Prize?
When I started my BA at Chelsea Art College in London in 1984.
Did the fact that it is run by a gallery local to you make the news any more special?
Yes, particularly so. When I was a child growing up in Liverpool, my mother used to take me and my younger sister Christina to the Walker Art Gallery, and we'd look at all the marvellous Victorian paintings, and my father, who was Chairman of the building committee at Liverpool Anglican Cathedral, and who managed to finally get the Cathedral finished and opened by the Queen in 1978, used to take us to Sunday Matins at the Cathedral every week. It has to be said that both of these parental "outings" used to rather bore me and my sister.
Now, as it says in the book of Corinthians, I have "Put away childish things" and I think differently, and I am very proud that my large Triptych " Crucifixion : At The End ... A Beginning" now hangs in the ambulatory of the Anglican Cathedral, and I will be very proud when my sister Christina and I come on September 16th to see my painting hanging in the Walker Art Gallery, the cradle of our childhood art history lessons!
Richard Harrison's Triptych, now hanging in the Ambulatory, Liverpool Anglican Cathedral
Where do you hope being shortlisted for the prize will lead you?
Although I exhibit regularly at London's Albemarle Gallery, and sell paintings worldwide to private collectors, my work has not been noticed by Corporate Collections and by Public Galleries in London and throughout the UK. I would hope that being shortlisted for the prize might bring my work to their attention.
STEVEN PROUDFOOT (entry: The Party)
Please would you describe your short-listed painting?
'The Party' my shortlisted picture, is in oil paint on paper which is then glued onto board (70cm X 100cm). I work on paper as it is convenient and easy to store although once I go over a metre I generally use canvas, even then I prefer to stretch the canvas over board which makes it heavier but it ensures the firm surface I enjoy working on.
The picture is based on an engagement party of a friend of ours' daughter (Rosemary and Jenny). I had forgotten my camera and used my mobile to record the happy event. I didn't intend to work from them, but once I'd downloaded the images I really liked the (totally unintended) subtle, unusual lighting effects. I never use a flash as a matter of course, as the bright light flattens the form and makes it less interesting.
After lots of studies and two versions of the complete composition, spanning more than eighteen months, I only just managed to finish the final composition in time for the John Moores submission date!
The painting describes an intimate moment and attempts to combine Vermeer's calm interiors with Velasquez's handling of paint.
All the people in the painting are friends and acquaintances: Rosemarie (our friend) is cutting the cake, Jenny and Anthony (the happy couple) are opposite her and Rosemarie's father, brother-in-law and his wife, sister, and various children are running about.
Gleeson's Bar, Dublin
Why are you drawn to painting as a medium?
What I am trying to do when producing art is to aesthetically excite myself and others(!). Having tried other disciplines at art college painting has always maintained its central place, although I also have produced prints and photographs over the years.
What thrills me the most is the traditional art of creating space out of a flat surface. I like non-figurative work but don't feel inclined to actually produce it myself.
As a painter my hero is Velasquez whose handling of paint is unbelievable as he manages to produce spectacular mark-making which magically transforms into solid form as one moves back from the image. Oil paint is a fantastically flexible medium and I love using it. I find acrylic doesn't have the same qualities.
Evening at Josie's by Steve Proudfoot
What was it like to discover you are on the short-list?
I was astonished when I found out I was one of the 258 to get through to stage 2 so to actually make the last 45 of the shortlist is staggering!
Entering the John Moores was part of a cunning plan; having left work to paint full-time I need to bring myself and my work to public attention. The time honoured way is to hoof around galleries with one's portfolio and/or send out images, but I decided to enter competitions instead. The John Moores was the largest one I have entered so to actually be included is unbelievable.
After all most of the other shortlisted artists are established and have solid London gallery connections.
When did you first hear of the John Moores Prize?
You probably won't believe me when I tell you that I have known of the John Moores since I was a child. I used to visit the Walker from about 10 years old - on my own! I love paintings and love the gallery. I even loved the old fashioned Edwardian gents toilet which was near the entrance with its enormous brass fittings.
The Jack Smith 'Creation and Crucifixion' particularly impressed itself upon me at that young age. I have subsequently visited nearly all the following competitions.
My favourite Walker picture is the Lucien Freud 'Interior near Paddington' I am one of the odd few who prefer his early work!
I am still a regular visitor having brought my wife and sons over the years.
Did the fact that it is run by a gallery local to you make the news any more special?
As is obvious from my previous answer I'm thrilled and delighted, as a scouser, that my painting will be in the Walker and in Liverpool. The competition has attracted some very great British artists since the late fifties, so to be amongst such company (if only for several months) is very exciting.
It's important to bear in mind that although I have always produced my own work I have neglected exhibiting. Hopefully the John Moores will prove to be a springboard to future developments.
Where do you hope being shortlisted for the prize will lead you?
Fame and fortune!
I am hoping, being included will raise my profile.
I have recently had
a website constructed and would like to have a solo exhibition and sell some work!
