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Steve McQueen: A critique
Tracey Emin's My Bed work had been the favourite to win |
by David Lee, editor of Art Review
The Turner Prize could not have been won by a nicer fellow than film-maker Steve McQueen.
Given the blanket coverage roused by beaten front-runner Tracey Emin's in-yer-face stubborn stains, it is an irony that the prize should have gone to an artist who avoided publicity and let his work speak for itself...but that is where the problem starts.
Steve McQueen: Homage to Buster Keaton |
His much discussed and praised piece based on Buster Keaton is as flagrant an example of plagiarism as you will find in any art gallery and succeeds only in polluting the memory of a comic masterpiece.
McQueen's two other entries are unwatchable for those raised on the efforts of professional filmmakers, to the extent that one wonders what qualities the adjudicators perceived in them.
The judges' bluster about Epoetry and the other all-purpose drivel they trotted out in defence of their choice is unhelpful to those of us who remain bewildered.
It would have been educative for the entire nation to have been flies on the wall of the Tate director's office when the judges were deliberating.
We would have learned the criteria used for judging such work and not have had to take on trust the mindles paeans uttered by those snake oil salesmen from the Tate's Department of Interpretation.
As it is we are none the wiser.
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Artistic licence |
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Last year's Turner Prize winner, Chris Ofili, used elephant dung in his painting |
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Damien Hirst won the prize in 1997 for displaying the severed halves of a cow and calf in formaldehyde |
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Artist Tony Kaye tried to submit a homeless steel worker for the prize |
It is in no sense visually alluring, beautiful or memorable and, in the end, we must take it on trust, like the blind faith of starry-eyed disciples, that the experts are right in proclaiming his films to be the acme of accomplishment in contemporary British art.
Unless, of course, we choose to be impertinent and ask for a second opinion.
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See also: |
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14 Nov 99 | Entertainment |
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Art award under fire |
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25 Oct 99 | Wales |
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Housewife 'outraged' by dirty bed exhibit |
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24 Oct 99 | UK |
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Feathers fly at art show |
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20 Oct 99 | UK |
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The Turner Prize draw |
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02 Dec 98 | Entertainment |
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Elephant dung artist scoops award |
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03 Jun 99 | Entertainment |
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True confessions and coming clean |
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04 Oct 99 | Americas |
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Sensation: Critics give mixed response |
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Channel 4 |
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Tate Gallery |
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