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Friday, September 17, 2010

Keith Coventry wins £25,000 John Moores Painting Prize 2010

Keith Coventry's work Spectrum Jesus has won the £25,000 The John Moores Painting Prize 2010.
[The John Moores Painting Prize is] the Oscar of the British painting world
Sir Norman Rosenthal, curator and former exhibitions secretary at the Royal Academy
The John Moores Painting Prize 2010
Spectrum Jesus (2009) by Keith Coventry
Oil on canvas, wood and glass, 68.6 x 58 cm (27" x 22.8")
First held in 1957, The John Moores Painting Prize is the UK's best-known painting competition.  It started in 1957 and is named after Sir John Moores (1896 - 1993) who founded the prize.  Every two years the competition has an exhibition held at the Walker Art Gallery every two years - which always coincides with the Liverpool Biennial.

The Walker Art Gallery and the John Moores Liverpool Exhibition Trust are the two partners behind the exhibition and they keep the principles underpinning both the competition and exhibition constant:
  • to support artists and 
  • to bring to Liverpool the best contemporary painting from across the UK.
The JM2010 exhibition is on show 18 September 2010 - 3 January 2011 at the Walker Art Gallery in Liverpool.  It does not tour to other cities. 

If anybody is going to the exhibition and writing a review please let me know and I'll give it a link in "who's made a mark this week?"  There's a chance I might be able to get to see it before it finishes but that won't be for a while.

Links to related websites and activities

These are links to:
  • the online catalogue - which has a page about the artist but nothing about the work "Spectrum Jesus".  I think I'd have preferred a statement about the painting rather than a statement about the artist's work.  I was left with the feeling this prize has been given to a painter rather than a painting.  [UPDATED: However I finally came across a blog post which attempts to explain the painting - although these words come from a commentator rather than the artist so far as I am aware.  I do wish competition organisers wouldn't assume we all had a complete inventory of all art history at our fingertips!]
Depicting the face of Jesus Christ, Spectrum Jesus is based on Han van Meegeren‘s notorious forgeries of the 17th century Dutch master Johannes Vermeer. The painting is a blue monochromatic image, part of a series rendered in the palette and style of the German Expressionist Emil Nolde
Online catalogue listings for the other prizewinners

Four other artists each won £2,500.  Their entries can be seen in the links below

Jury Selection

For those curious about the selection of prizewinners and/or interested in entering the exhibition next time around this is
Online catalogue listings for artists selected for the John Moores 2010 exhibition

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