John Moores prize.... and its winners.

Being a student at John Moores, it struck me a few days ago that I know very little about the John Moores prize, or its winners. The competition was first held in 1957, it is a contemporary painting prize and is the UK's best known painting competition; its named after Sir John Moores who died in 1993, who was the founder of the prize. The competition culminates in an exhibition that is held in the Walker Art Gallery every two years. It is then later linked with the Liverpool Biennial. The principles of the exhibition will never change; to support artists and to bring to Liverpool the best contemporary paintings from all across the UK.

My favourite has to be 'Blotter', by Peter Doig which won first prize in the 1993 exhibition. The idea originally derived from a photograph of the artists brother standing on a frozen pond. Doig said about the painting, 'The title 'Blotter' refers to the notion of one's being absorbed into a place or landscape, and to the process through which the painting developed: soaking paint into the canvas.'
The figure is shown looking down at his reflection, which suggests he's possibly in deep thought, or perhaps contemplating the landscape in which he finds himself.



Another personal favourite of mine is 'Mirage', by Michael Raedecker, winner of the prize in 1999. The work combines an inventive range of mediums, mostly influenced by his undergrad studies involving fashion. He uses thread in areas you could expect to use paint; balls of painted looped thread add texture, as well as a combination of surfaces that display intricate embroidery all completed in neutral tones, which result in quite an unsettling (but nicely decorated!) atmosphere. It appears rather bleak; almost a depiction of a desert landscape. He expressed 'real suprise' at winning the prize, bless him.


Last but not least is 'Super star fucker - Andy Warhol text painting' by Peter Davies, who won the prize in 2002. This text painting includes a series of artists names, starting with Warhol's in the centre, and the rest flowing out like a diagram. Everything in the painting is repeated only once. Davies said of the piece, 'I want to... combine the sensuality and beauty of formalism with the humour and toughness of conceptualism'. Davies had this to say about winning the prize;

'It is going to enable me to not worry about money so much for a while…and concentrate on making what I really want to make rather than what I feel is a sensible thing to make, [something] that someone might buy.'