Turner Prize moves

When Tomma Abts won the Turner Prize this year some claimed that it was about time a woman and a painter won; it is nearly a decade since this happened.



Tomma Abts, Sebo 2002
Gaby and Wilhelm Schurmann © Copyright the artist
Acrylic and oil on canvas, 48 x 38 cm

It is an exciting move for Liverpool to be host to the Turner Prize the year before the city is named European Capital of Culture. Though some cynics may argue that the move is a nod on behalf of the Tate to buzz words such as diversity and access or that it will increase numbers to the small sister of Britain and Modern or even that it will redirect criticism that the Tate is Londoncentric. Whatever your argument the Turner Prize will be missed by London.
The work of the prize’s four short-listed artists will go on display at Tate Liverpool’s Albert Dock gallery from Oct. 19, 2007 to Jan. 13, 2008. The jury of judges has been announced and includes the mighty Thelma Golden, director and chief curator at the Studio Museum, Harlem; Fiona Bradley, director of the Fruit Market Gallery in Edinburgh; critic Michael Bracewell; and broadcaster and writer Miranda Sawyer. Tate Liverpool director Christoph Grunenberg will be chairman of the jury.