10/12/2001

Martin Creed has been announced the winner of the Turner Prize 2001, one of the most prestigious European prizes for the visual arts. On the 9th of December, the thirty-three year old artist from Wakefield (Yorkshire) was awarded the prize during a ceremony presented by the American rock star Madonna and broadcast live by the main sponsor of the event, Channel 4. The Turner Prize, amounting to $ 28,640 (€ 32,260), was set up in 1984 by the Patrons of New Art of the Tate Britain to promote debate on new developments in contemporary British art. The prize awarded to a British artist under the age of fifty, is given to a selected contemporary work of art produced in the twelve months up to May 2001. This year’s winning work is a room with intermittent light: The Lights Going On and Off by Creed. The runners up for the prize were Richard Billingham, Isaac Julien and Mike Nelson. The jury, presided by the director of the Tate, Nicholas Serota, was made up by Patricia Bickers, director of “Art Monthly” magazine, Stuart Evans, representing the Patrons of the Tate, Robert Storr, senior curator for paintings and sculpture at MoMA in New York, and Jonathan Watkins, director of the Ikon Gallery in Birmingham. (Elena Balzani)