Late Turner + Turner Prize 2014 at Tate Britain

Late Turner & Turner Prize at Tate Britain 10-10-14

What would Turner make of this years prize, a decent enough question seeing as its named after him. We currently have an opportunity to imagine his frame of mind in later life, by examining many large and bright oils and more petite watercolours in the current show. He certainly put in the hard yards , no flipping through books in a library or listening to audio tracks on a computer for him. Much of these late works are composed from hillsides and lake views in Switzerland, with a familiar view of Lake Lucerne with its causeway over which trains still cross today. Then there is Lake Zug and and the famous mountain of the area – the Rilke I believe. He went back to this part of the world ten times and produced lots of work, some of which looks unfinished as the canvasses feature large white expanses – unusual for him.

Turner ended his career specialising in capturing a moment – that special moment when the sun bursts through the clouds like a celestial spotlight, blinding the onlooker with light. Or that millisecond when a steam train thunders across a viaduct, creating a foggy smokey atmosphere, through which one can not only glimpse the locomotive, but seemingly see inside the engine room, all sparks, sweat, motion, fury. He might be leaping what is really possible in this most famous picture ; "Rain, Steam, Speed - The Great Western Railway 1844", but most of us tend to overlook the artistic licence to allow for the overall effect. Atmosphere became his speciality and some of his best work can be seen in the Tate’s current show. There are some delightful views of Rome , ancient and modern, as well as fires as seen at the Houses of Parliament 1833 and at The Tower of London.

How do you create mystery and atmosphere when your chosen medium is video? Its not something any three of the four artists short listed for this years Turner prize attempt. They all seem to have reached the same point of view regarding art ; make a super annoying – ( Richards, Vonna, Campbell)} ultra pretentious – the one based on Chris Marker and Alan Resnais – “It for others” – Campbell , and extremely offensive and boundary pushing – Richards film featuring Robert Mapplethorpes xxx cert photos of male on male sex. All three are beyond any kind of excuse for art – they are accompanied by the most tedious, pathetic audio tracks imaginable – the only feeling any of them left me with was frustration that this utter drivel has been chosen not only for the Turner Prize, but to represent Britain at the Venice Biennale.What a bunch of utter, self important twerps the Italians who saw it must think we Brits are.

Whats worse is that the only artist the “panel” could find that didnt contribute a daft film was Ciara Philips screen prints which have been used to wallpaper her space. The only good thing here were her posters of revolutionaries like Riviera and Che Guevera. Really decent subject matter and didn’t make you feel like self harming within two minutes of looking on. Well that’s got to be worth £20k in itself, hasn’t it ?

For what its worth I think Duncan Campbell will win, as his was the only room that people didn’t rush through while averting their eyes from the art they were here to see. In Campbells room about half a dozen people were actually watching the film, without shouting out “when’s Emmanuelle on? “ or “I was expecting to see Saw or at least Machete ! “ or “boo I want my money back “ or the funniest “even Gilbert & George is better than this !”.But this was the most execrable, pretentious work I have seen in a long time. Truly dire. Congrats Duncan!