Turner Prize Finalists Announced

The BBC‘s Will Gompertz comments on the four finalists for the Turner Prize–Dexter Dalwood, Angela de la Cruz, Susan Philipsz and The Otolith Group–all of whom are mature artists:

49-year-old Dexter Dalwood has been making uncanny paintings about famous locations of pop culture happenings for more than a decade. And 45-year-old Angela De La Cruz first discovered her thing was to change the emphasis of a painting into an object when she broke the stretchers over her canvases while a student at the Slade School of Art.

True, the 40-something duo the Otoliths have only been around since 2002, but that is eight years ago and their schtick – futuristic essay films using archive footage – hasn’t changed. Nor have the disembodied sound works of Susan Philipsz altered dramatically in direction or conceit over the years.

It’s not that any of the artists are unworthy, only that they could have been chosen years ago when what they were doing was actually new. Of the last three winners of the Turner Prize, two were 49 – that bodes well for Dalwood. Taken with this year’s short-list, it implies a trend.

Turner Prize 2010 . . . and Beyond (BBC News)