BBC News | UK | McQueen wins Turner Prize

BBC News Online: UK

Tuesday, 30 November, 1999, 22:15 GMT

McQueen wins Turner Prize

Film-maker Steve McQueen has won Britain's best-known art award, the Turner Prize, beating provocative front-runner Tracey Emin.

The 30-year-old artist, whose latest exhibition includes footage of a tape recorder drifting off beneath a balloon and a house collapsing, was the second favourite to take the Ł20,000 prize.

Steve McQueen

His success was announced at a dinner at the Tate Gallery in London in front of movers and shakers in the art world.

Accepting his award, Mr McQueen made a very brief speech, saying: "I would like to thank my family and friends who are here tonight ... that's it really."

The film-maker who now lives and works in Amsterdam and Berlin, and the other nominees, were largely overshadowed in the countdown to the prize by the notoriety of Emin's work.

For her Turner exhibition at the Tate she displayed a stained, unmade bed surrounded by empty bottles and other detritus left after a week of being bedridden.

The prize jury awarded him the award tonight for the "poetry and clarity of his vision, the range of his work, its emotional intensity and economy of means".

The jury, chaired by Tate director Sir Nicholas Serota, was also excited by his continuing intellectual and technical evolution.

Artistic licence

Last year's Turner Prize winner, Chris Ofili, used elephant dung in his painting
Damien Hirst won the prize in 1997 for displaying the severed halves of a cow and calf in formaldehyde
Artist Tony Kaye tried to submit a homeless steel worker for the prize

McQueen's three works in the Turner exhibition - an opportunity to showcase the nominated artists - included his film Prey which focuses on a tape recorder playing the sound of tap dancing.

Eventually as the film progresses it becomes clear that it is being dragged into the air beneath a balloon and eventually disappears.

In another, Deadpan, he is seen recreating a Buster Keaton silent movie stunt in which a building front collapses, falling around him.

He is seen from various angles escaping unscathed, standing where the window frame falls.

McQueen was presented with the prize by architect Zaha Hadid. Channel 4, which has sponsored the award since 1991, also announced that it will continue its support for three more years.

Related to this story:
Steve McQueen: Profile (01 Dec 99 | UK)
Art award under fire (14 Nov 99 | Entertainment)
Housewife 'outraged' by dirty bed exhibit (25 Oct 99 | Wales)
Feathers fly at art show (24 Oct 99 | UK)
The Turner Prize draw (20 Oct 99 | UK)
Elephant dung artist scoops award (02 Dec 98 | Entertainment)
True confessions and coming clean (03 Jun 99 | Entertainment)
Sensation: Critics give mixed response (04 Oct 99 | Americas)

Internet Links: Tate Gallery Channel 4
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