From Chris Ofili’s elephant dung painting to Tracey Emin’s infamous unmade bed, the Turner Prize has consistently provoked controversy and criticism. Until now.
Despite a shortlist featuring a film about broken crockery, a mannequin sitting on a lavatory, a photo collage and an installation featuring, among other things, Felix the Cat, this year’s prize, the winner of which will be announced tomorrow, has raised barely a murmur.
Critics have panned it as the “worst on record” and likened the exhibition at London’s Tate Britain to an “afternoon spent in a Heathrow departure lounge”. The standard of work showcased is so bad that some claim the future of the Turner Prize itself, regarded as one of the world’s most prestigious contemporary art awards, is in question. The veteran art critic Brian Sewell has demanded a place on the judging jury to shake up the prize, while others have called for it to be scrapped altogether.
David Lee, editor of The Jackdaw magazine, said the prize, first awarded in 1984, is “dead in the water”.
“This is the first time I haven’t been in 24 years, so that tells you something,” he said. “I wasn’t that impressed with the shortlist. It’s scraping the bottom of the barrel. In any generation there are only a handful of artists that are any good. Once they’ve won it, what are you going to do? (The Independent)

The agenda of art lovers in the month of September will be full of important appointments for the art market, with regard to both ancient art and modern and contemporary art.   Various sales will be held by the different international auction houses.  All ready to start a second semester wondering what it will be like.

Article translated by Amritee Mahabir

Ever since the media and commercial exchanges have amplified the horizon of the art world, which was previously confined within the limits of schools and academies, it gave life to a complex and organised trade system for the diffusion of contemporary art.

Article translated by Amritee Mahabir

The “Contemporary Art” House organised by Sotheby’s New York next April 2nd was interestingly announced. The auction will put together 468 lots by high quality artists spacing from seventies art right up to contemporary masters.