2006 Turner Prize
Encyclopedia
This article is about the 2006 Turner Prize
for British contemporary art.
There were four nominees for the prize and the winner was Tomma Abts
.
The nominees in alphabetical order were:
Artist's statement:
"I can't really ever say what it will look like or how it will finish or what will make it work. It's a different idea or moment for each painting. It's not really... I try so much with the composition and colour, and get closer and closer, and then there's always a moment where there's a surprise, when I try something and ... everything is in place."
Gallery text:
Press coverage:
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Turner Prize
The Turner Prize, named after the painter J. M. W. Turner, is an annual prize presented to a British visual artist under the age of 50. Awarding the prize is organised by the Tate gallery and staged at Tate Britain. Since its beginnings in 1984 it has become the United Kingdom's most publicised...
for British contemporary art.
There were four nominees for the prize and the winner was Tomma Abts
Tomma Abts
Tomma Abts is a German-born abstract painter who won the Turner Prize in 2006.-Early life:Abts was born in Kiel in Germany and currently lives and works in London, England.-Work:...
.
The nominees in alphabetical order were:
- Tomma AbtsTomma AbtsTomma Abts is a German-born abstract painter who won the Turner Prize in 2006.-Early life:Abts was born in Kiel in Germany and currently lives and works in London, England.-Work:...
- nominated for her solo exhibitions at Kunsthalle BaselKunsthalle BaselSince opening in 1872, Kunsthalle Basel has examined various positions concerning contemporary art. This renowned exhibition space in the Swiss city of Basel has a very long tradition of supporting avant-garde artists and expanding the accepted boundaries of contemporary art. Contemporary art...
, SwitzerlandSwitzerlandSwitzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....
, and greengrassi, LondonLondonLondon is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
.
- Phil CollinsPhil Collins (artist)-Life and work:Phil Collins was born in Runcorn, England and now lives in Berlin He studied Drama and English at the University of Manchester, graduating in 1994. During his time there he worked as a cloak-room boy and pint-puller at the Hacienda nightclub on Whitworth Street...
- nominated for solo exhibitions at Milton Keynes Gallery, Tanya Bonakdar GalleryTanya Bonakdar GalleryTanya Bonakdar Gallery is an art gallery located in Chelsea in New York City founded by Tanya Bonakdar. Since its inception in 1994, the gallery has maintained a consistent and rigorous program in the exhibition of new work by contemporary artists in all media, including painting, sculpture,...
, New YorkNew YorkNew York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
, and his presentation in British Art Show 6
- Mark TitchnerMark TitchnerMark Titchner is an English artist and a nominee for the 2006 Turner Prize. He lives and works in London.-Biography and career:Mark Titchner was born in Luton. He graduated from Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design, London, in 1995....
- nominated for his solo exhibition at ArnolfiniArnolfiniThe Arnolfini is an arts centre and gallery in Bristol, England. It has a programme of contemporary art exhibitions, live art, music and dance events, poetry and book readings, talks, lectures and cinema. There is also a specialist art bookshop and a café bar. Educational activities are undertaken...
, BristolBristolBristol is a city, unitary authority area and ceremonial county in South West England, with an estimated population of 433,100 for the unitary authority in 2009, and a surrounding Larger Urban Zone with an estimated 1,070,000 residents in 2007...
.
- Rebecca WarrenRebecca WarrenRebecca Warren is a British sculptor, and a nominee for the 2006 Turner Prize.Rebecca Warren was born in Pinhoe. She studied Fine Art at Goldsmiths' College, University of London receiving a BA before taking her MA in Fine Art at the Chelsea College of Art, London...
- nominated for her solo exhibitions at Matthew Marks GalleryMatthew Marks GalleryMatthew Marks is an art gallery located in the New York City neighborhood of Chelsea. Founded in the early 1990s by Matthew Marks, it specializes in modern and contemporary art in a variety of media: including painting, sculpture, photography, installation art, film, and drawings and prints...
, New YorkNew YorkNew York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
, and Galerie Daniel Buchholz, CologneCologneCologne is Germany's fourth-largest city , and is the largest city both in the Germany Federal State of North Rhine-Westphalia and within the Rhine-Ruhr Metropolitan Area, one of the major European metropolitan areas with more than ten million inhabitants.Cologne is located on both sides of the...
, and for her contribution to the Tate Triennial 2006.
Turner Prize exhibition 2006
The Turner Prize is awarded for a show by the artist in the previous year. When nominees are told of their nomination they then prepare exhibits for the Turner Prize exhibition, often at short notice. As such, the Turner Prize exhibition may not feature the works for which the artist was initially nominated by the judges. However the Turner Prize exhibition tends to be the basis on which public and press judge the artist's worthiness for nomination.Tomma Abts
Tomma Abts exhibited works were eleven abstract paintings (acrylic and oil on canvas). The works titles are all taken from a book of German Christian names and included:- Ebe
- Abstract painting in blues and white of triangular and circular shapes.
- Lübbe
- Abstract painting in brown and pastel tones.
- Epko
- Abstract painting in light and dark browns.
- Ert
- Abstract painting in curved lines of blue-grey tones.
- Mehm
- Abstract painting with angular lines in red hues (see Guardian audio slideshow).
- Veeke
- Abstract painting with angular lines of various hues on grey background (see Guardian audio slideshow).
Artist's statement:
"I can't really ever say what it will look like or how it will finish or what will make it work. It's a different idea or moment for each painting. It's not really... I try so much with the composition and colour, and get closer and closer, and then there's always a moment where there's a surprise, when I try something and ... everything is in place."
Gallery text:
- "She works consistently to a format of 48 x 38 centimetres in acrylic and oil paint. She uses no source material and begins with no preconceived idea of the final result. Instead, her paintings take shape through a gradual process of layering and accrual. As the internal logic of each composition unfolds forms are defined, buried and rediscovered until the painting becomes ‘congruent with itself’."
Press coverage:
- "At most, her well-ordered geometric forms look mildly 'trippy' but the trip doesn't lead anywhere." - The GuardianThe GuardianThe Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
- "I would vote for her" - The IndependentThe IndependentThe Independent is a British national morning newspaper published in London by Independent Print Limited, owned by Alexander Lebedev since 2010. It is nicknamed the Indy, while the Sunday edition, The Independent on Sunday, is the Sindy. Launched in 1986, it is one of the youngest UK national daily...
- "Seen in reproduction or from a distance, these low-keyed paintings look like nothing much at all. But step up close to any one of them, examine it with attention, and you will be knocked off your feet." - The TelegraphThe Daily TelegraphThe Daily Telegraph is a daily morning broadsheet newspaper distributed throughout the United Kingdom and internationally. The newspaper was founded by Arthur B...
- "I hope that Abts takes the Turner Prize this year [...] because her paintings have a lovely sense of inner congruence. They are impossible to reproduce or describe. They have to be seen. Her work, quite simply, works visually." - The TimesThe TimesThe Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register . The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary since 1981 of News International...
Phil Collins
Phil Collins' exhibited works were films and an installation consisting of a fully staffed and functioning production office.- the return of the real / gercegin geri donusu
- A film in which people who have been on reality televisionReality televisionReality television is a genre of television programming that presents purportedly unscripted dramatic or humorous situations, documents actual events, and usually features ordinary people instead of professional actors, sometimes in a contest or other situation where a prize is awarded...
or talk showTalk showA talk show or chat show is a television program or radio program where one person discuss various topics put forth by a talk show host....
s speak about how the experience had a negative impact on their lives.
- A film in which people who have been on reality television
- Shady Lane Productions
- An installation consisting of a staffed production office.
- baghdad screentests
- they shoot horses
- A seven hour video of Palestinians disco dancing.
Gallery text:
- "Phil Collins’s art investigates our ambivalent relationship with the camera as both an instrument of attraction and manipulation, of revelation and shame. He often operates within forms of low-budget television and reportage-style documentary to address the discrepancy between reality and its representations."
- "gives even that most potentially tedious of cultural productions, the art video, a bad name. His interminable films are even less riveting than the reality TV programmes that they set out to question."
Press coverage:
- "thought-provoking and charming" - The GuardianThe GuardianThe Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
- "[Shady Lane Productions] is, like Duchamp's urinalFountain (Duchamp)Fountain is a 1917 work by Marcel Duchamp. It is one of the pieces which he called readymades. In such pieces he made use of an already existing object. In this case Duchamp used a urinal, which he titled Fountain and signed "R. Mutt". Readymades also go by the term Found object...
, art only because the artist says it is art." - The IndependentThe IndependentThe Independent is a British national morning newspaper published in London by Independent Print Limited, owned by Alexander Lebedev since 2010. It is nicknamed the Indy, while the Sunday edition, The Independent on Sunday, is the Sindy. Launched in 1986, it is one of the youngest UK national daily...
Mark Titchner
Mark Titchner's exhibited works were installations and pictures, including:- How To Change Behaviour (Tiny Masters Of The World Come Out)
- Installation of multiple items, some looking like car batteries. A picture on the wall has "TINY MASTERS OF THE WORLD COME OUT" written on in large text. (see Guardian audio slideshow).
- The Memory of Our Will Will Was The Dirt From Your Feet
- If You Can Dream It, You Must Do It
- Picture of an outstretched hand with the title written above
- Ergo Ergot
- A tree like structure with motorised spirals
Gallery text:
- "Mark Titchner’s art explores the tensions between the different belief systems that inform society, be they religious, scientific or political. His sculptural installations are provocative hybrids that often combine new technologies with old techniques."
Press coverage:
- "Titchner, whose work incorporates quotes from Heidegger and Nietzsche, doesn't actually have anything much to say." - The GuardianThe GuardianThe Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
- "The work is oddly artless in the sense of lacking guile, being unsophisticated and unworldly, even unaffected. Yet the objects have charm." - The IndependentThe IndependentThe Independent is a British national morning newspaper published in London by Independent Print Limited, owned by Alexander Lebedev since 2010. It is nicknamed the Indy, while the Sunday edition, The Independent on Sunday, is the Sindy. Launched in 1986, it is one of the youngest UK national daily...
- "I have written before with enthusiasm about Mark Titchener [but] you need an instruction manual to figure out what he's banging on about in the ugly sculptures he is showing here."
- "left me wishing that the art work could at least have a visual point" - The TimesThe TimesThe Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register . The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary since 1981 of News International...
Rebecca Warren
Rebecca Warren's exhibited works were sculptures and installations, including:- 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004 or 2005
- Loulou
- A sculpture of clay and acrylic paint.
- Pony
- A figurative sculpture.
- Bronzes
- Bronze sculptures (see Guardian audio slideshow).
- Teacher (M.B)
- Teacher (W)
- Teacher (R)
- Three sculptures of varying approximations of the female form with large buttocks or breasts (see Guardian audio slideshow).
Gallery text:
- "deas of self-expression, gender and the nature and purpose of sculptural form converge in Warren’s work. However, she adopts a deliberately precarious stance, reinforcing a slippage of meaning through her hybrid titles which incorporate references to films, songs and made-up words, which mirror the varied forms of her work."
Press coverage:
- "eloquently expresses the statements she borrows, from academic feminism [but her] works only reinforce her source materials' primacy and potency." - The GuardianThe GuardianThe Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
- "she creates works of art that feel fresh and intimate" - The TelegraphThe Daily TelegraphThe Daily Telegraph is a daily morning broadsheet newspaper distributed throughout the United Kingdom and internationally. The newspaper was founded by Arthur B...
- "It doesn’t make a pretty sight. And its feminist message is tired." - The TimesThe TimesThe Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register . The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary since 1981 of News International...
- "while most of us would put that stuff in a bin, Warren insists it has a place in an art gallery" - Daily Mirror
Press judgment of exhibition as a whole
- "the exhibition overall is too safe and cerebral to generate controversy or really stimulate viewers. Perhaps this year's judges were simply tired of fighting." - The GuardianThe GuardianThe Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
- "I left the show after the second of my two visits thinking that this is not a vintage year for the Turner prize." - The IndependentThe IndependentThe Independent is a British national morning newspaper published in London by Independent Print Limited, owned by Alexander Lebedev since 2010. It is nicknamed the Indy, while the Sunday edition, The Independent on Sunday, is the Sindy. Launched in 1986, it is one of the youngest UK national daily...
- "a consistently fascinating exhibition" - The TelegraphThe Daily TelegraphThe Daily Telegraph is a daily morning broadsheet newspaper distributed throughout the United Kingdom and internationally. The newspaper was founded by Arthur B...
- "[The Prize] seems to have nowhere to turn except inwards — if the Turner, in part, represents the state of the contemporary, this year’s contribution reflects what a drab mess that is." - The TimesThe TimesThe Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register . The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary since 1981 of News International...
Online slideshows
- Guardian audio slideshows
- Slideshows of all the nominees works with discussion by the Guardian art critics.
- Abts at greengrassi
- Slideshow of the exhibition for which she received her nomination.