National Museums Liverpool Blog - JM2010

It's been an exciting time for us here at National Museums Liverpool as we have been happily weighed down with yet another award!

The John Moores Painting Prize has beaten the rest in its field to be named Merseyside's Tourism Event of the Year. The John Moores 2010 exhibition, which ran at the Walker Art Gallery from September to January, was the most successful ever in terms of visitor numbers.

Last Thursday the exhibition scooped the top prize at the Mersey Partnership Tourism Awards at the BT Convention Centre. It beat strong competition from the Grand National Festival, Mersey Ferries Manchester Ship Canal Cruise and Mersey Tunnel Tours.

National Museums Liverpool was also shortlisted for Large Visitor Attraction (Merseyside Maritime Museum), Business Tourism (Merseyside Maritime Museum), Retail (World Museum shop) and Excellence in Customer Service (Cliff Bowden, Lady Lever Art Gallery).

As the official Tourist Board for the Liverpool City Region, The Mersey Partnership (TMP) organises the Tourism Awards to recognise and reward excellence across the Visitor Economy sector.

The Awards Ceremony has become an annual showcase for the best of the City Region's destination offer. The John Moores will now join ten other category winners to represent the region at the Enjoy England Awards for Excellence. Good luck to Angela Samata (pictured), who is the John Moores Project Manager.

The three judges take a break.

I’m looking forward to BBC 2 screening Show Me the Monet from this Monday after organising and supervising the marathon filming sessions over a January weekend.

A film crew filled three of our galleries at the rear of the Walker Art Gallery  to film this competition show being screened at 5.15 pm every weekday night from Monday 9 May to Friday 20 May.

In a nutshell it involves artists being grilled about their artworks by three critics – David Lee, Charlotte Mullins and Roy Bolton (pictured left to right). The aim is to be included in an exclusive exhibition at the Royal College of Art, next to London’s Albert Hall.

The show is hosted by Chris Hollins, perhaps better known as a BBC sports presenter and winner of Strictly Come Dancing.

A total of 32 largely unknown but talented artists came to the Walker over the two days. They were first interviewed by Chris before going to the judges with their artworks. After several excruciating minutes of objective criticism the judges gave their verdicts.

Most contestants were philosophical but at least one burst into floods of tears. Ten were successful in getting through to the exhibition.

As I told the critics during a break in filming, this show breaks taboos. Many artists believe passionately that their art should speak for itself.

When we hold the prestigious John Moores exhibition the judges are not even given the artists’ names - the art is judged purely on its merits.

Show Me the Monet also publicises the Walker’s collections. Chris was filmed taking about some of the stunning exhibits including Simone Martini’s Christ Discovered in the Temple and a tiny votive picture painted by a very young Raphael.

Another feature is the artists being interviewed separately in galleries filled with masterpieces.

I went to the private view at the Royal College of Art in March and was impressed by the exhibition of about 30 works. They were still filming - the series starts at the exhibition with Chris describing how it all came together.

Other sequences were shot in galleries in London and Glasgow - most of the exhibited works were for sale.

This was a great experience for all concerned and hopefully none of the artists were too disappointed about not being included. I predict that this will be a big hit and should go to another series.

It gives a totally new slant on TV’s approach to art – I know of no other show where artists face their critics so directly. It blows away the preciousness and mystique that surrounds some art programmes today.

It also allows the viewer to get into the mind of the artist and see how and why they create works.

I love the smell of fresh paint, plus we are re-decorating at home and I need some inspiration for colours, so I popped up to the temporary exhibition space in the Walker Art Gallery this morning.

Temporary exhibition space in the Walker Art Gallery gets re-decorated ahead of exciting year of new exhibitions.

As sad as it was to see the popular John Moores Painting Prize exhibition come to an end last week, when one door closes another one opens and the Walker has a fantastic exhibition programme for next year.

Kicking off the year is 'A Collector's Eye: Cranach to Pissarro' which as its name suggests is an exhibition bursting with old masters. An exhibition so rich in artistic superstars requires an appropriate backdrop which is what our designers have gone for with this sumptuous green.

I think it would look just lovely in my dining room!

Record breaking visitor figures at 2010 John Moores Painting Prize

We were pretty confident this was a special exhibition but it is always nice when our visitors agree! Almost 47,000 people have visited since it opened its doors in September, making this the most popular 'John Moores Painting Prize' in the competition’s 53 year history!

The exhibition is open until 3 January 2011, but visitor figures already stand at 10,000 more than the final figure for the last exhibition in 2008, when Liverpool was crowned European Capital of Culture.

If you are stuck for Christmas present ideas or would just like a memento of this year’s fantastic exhibition why not pick up one of our exclusive Gary Hume badges at the Walker Art Gallery shop (£9.95)? All proceeds go towards funding future exhibitions.

We had some exciting news recently from one of the John Moores exhibitors, Cara Nahaul, who has been selected along with two other artists for the Jerwood Painting Fellowship 2011.

Cara's painting "Somewhere between prayer and agenda"

Born in 1987, Cara is one of this year's youngest exhibitors and is following in the foot steps of other John Moores artists whose inclusion in the exhibition has proved to be an important stepping stone in their career. One of the best examples being the artist Peter Doig, whose work broke records in 2007 when it sold for £5.7 million, and who has described his John Moores win in 1993 as a "pivotal point".

Cara says: “To be selected for this year's John Moores Painting Prize was an amazing opportunity for myself as an artist, as it allowed me to see my work in a national institution. Having my work shown at John Moores gave me the confidence and impetus to pursue my professional practice. I applied for the Jerwood Visual Arts painting fellowship and was selected to make work for an exhibition in 2011 at Jerwood Gallery.“

Jerwood Painting Fellowships are a new initiative from Jerwood Visual Arts designed to promote and support emerging artists in the field of painting. It follows the Jerwood Contemporary Painters series, which came to an end earlier this year after a four year run, and previously the Jerwood Painting Prize.

The John Moores Painting Prize continues at the Walker Art Gallery until 3 January 2011

Jason discusses his colourful and complex painting.

Aaron Eastwood is a final year English student at the University of Liverpool and is currently volunteering with us in the press office. Yesterday he went along to the Walker Art Gallery to catch the last of the John Moores artist talks. Here is what he made of it:

Local artist Jason Thompson’s painting, ‘Refractions (Robert Hooke)’, stands proudly in this year’s John Moores Painting Prize as the first piece made by a National Museums Liverpool employee to be chosen for exhibition!

Jason himself visited the gallery yesterday to talk about his work, explaining the creative processes involved in the conception and production of his work.

The distinct painting is small yet powerfully visual. Bold, angular lines of enamel paint emanate strikingly from the plywood background. These ‘threads of colour’ as Jason put it, criss-cross and intertwine over many layers. It was fascinating to hear that Jason’s creative methods are based on ‘random, intuitive mark-making’ and I really got the sense that Jason truly believes in and enjoys the long, natural processes involved in his artwork. He only works with ‘found’ objects, including the paints he works with. As a result he never mixes colours, so all his colours are chosen rather than manipulated in the mixing process, which adds to the earthly feel of the work and shows just how much effort goes into each piece.

One keen audience member commented that a friend’s child, on viewing the painting, had exclaimed that he just wanted to ‘reach out and grab the painting to see if the colourful sticks would move.’ I thought this was an excellent observation: the painting, although static, seems in constant motion and has a very inviting, tactile quality.

Jason further explained that the reference in the painting’s title to the natural philosopher Robert Hooke had no explicit representational meaning but was meant to evoke comparisons to the natural evolutionary processes involved in the formation of living things.

We’re all very proud of Jason’s achievement in the exhibition – well done!

The new painting by artist Ged Quinn on loan from a private collection.

If you have been wandering around our 20th century and contemporary gallery recently, you may have noticed that our amazing 'Liverpool Cityscape' has disappeared! Don't worry, it's just on loan right now for the ‘Ben Johnson: Modern Perspectives’ exhibition at the National Gallery in London.

In the mean time we have an explosion of colour filling the wall, in the form of a new loan. This stunning landscape with quirky details is by Ged Quinn, the Liverpool-born artist and juror for the John Moores Painting Prize 2010. It's called 'The Exiled Forever Coming in to Land' and was painted earlier this year. Ged was inspired by the American landscape artist Frederic Edwin Church and his work called 'Twighlight in the Wilderness'.

Ged shows his love of traditional styles of painting such as the Baroque and Romantic, but he also includes his own references to contemporary culture. He says that the white horse is ‘a cheesy symbol of death and loved by fantasy poster artists.’

I like the surreal effect of the house floating in the sky, with its weird upside-down Christmas tree hanging off the bottom. It actually makes me think of Monty Python animation! It's an interesting painting to look at as you get the full impact of the colourful landscape and then the pleasure of peering at the tiny details, which gives it a sense of humour as well.

Come and have a look for yourself and see if you can spot the upside down office chair and the cart full of treasured possessions!

You can see another of Ged's paintings on our website from the John Moores 25 exhibition here and watch videos of Ged during the John Moores Painting Prize judging here.

Have you seen the flowers on the cover of the Independent newspaper today? This beautiful image has been created by acclaimed artist and John Moores judge, Gary Hume to help raise awarness about World Aids Day. Elton John is involved in editing the paper today and as Gary is one of his favourite artists, it's no surprise that he asked him to produce a piece of work for the cover.

This little piece of Gary Hume art could be yours!

Gary is also producing a limited edition of 100 prints of the front-page image, signed by the artist and Elton John, on sale for £1,000. But if your pockets are feeling the pinch, you can easily get your own piece of work by Gary Hume in the form of a lovely John Moores 2010 enamel badge!

Gary created the design for the badge specifically for the John Moores 2010 exhibition and all profits go back into funding future exhibitions. They are a snip at £9.95 and you can only buy them from the Walker Art Gallery shop. You'll also get a free John Moores tote bag with every badge. So if you know someone arty, pop one of these in their stocking and you're bound to give them a nice surprise on Christmas Day!

You might have already seen that on Thursday night (25 November) the 2010 John Moores Painting Prize winner, Keith Coventry, will be discussing his work with previous juror and independent art critic Sacha Craddock.

Both Keith and Sacha have kindly agreed to do a signing session after the event. Keith will signing copies of the JM2010 catalogue, and Sacha will be signing copies of the 2008 exhibition catalogue in which she features as a juror. Catalogues cost £9.95 and £5 respectively.

The event kicks off at 6pm in the Walker Art Gallery. Places are free but limited so call 0151 478 4697 to reserve yours.

If you can't make the event you can still buy (unsigned) copies of both catalogues in our online shop.

We've a few copies of the John Moores Painting Prize catalogue to give away in our latest competition. Each has been signed by the competition winner - Keith Coventry - and is a real collector's item.

To be in with a chance of winning just answer this easy peasy question:

The 2010 catalogue features the five prize winners from another John Moores competition which is in its inaugural year. In which Chinese city did that competition take place?

Send us your answer with your name and address using this contact form. The deadline for entries is noon on Friday 29 October, 2010.

If you’re not lucky enough to win a copy, you can buy your own at our online shop.