So who would make the Turner Prize shortlist and get to exhibit at Baltic? DAVID WHETSTONE was at Tate Britain for yesterday’s announcement

JOURNALISTS gathered as usual at Tate Britain in London yesterday for the announcement of the artists

shortlisted for this year’s Turner Prize for contemporary art.

The shortlist is invariably the occasion for critical cheers and sneers, with more to follow when the work of the chosen artists goes on display later in the year, ahead of the announcement of the winner.

For 25 of the previous 26 Turner Prize competitions, all this has taken place at Tate Britain – a repository for British art treasures in a part of London awash with foreign tourists and, just a few days ago, spectators at a Royal wedding.

This year, for only the second time, the Turner Prize exhibition is to be held outside the capital.

Tate Liverpool hosted the show in 2008, its European Capital of Culture year. This year, it is the turn of Gateshead’s Baltic, which can claim a genuine first since no other non-Tate gallery has ever played host to the Turner Prize.

Penelope Curtis, director of Tate Britain, said yesterday that Baltic hosting the exhibition was “great for us”.

Godfrey Worsdale, director of Baltic and one of the five-strong judging panel, said it was definitely great for Baltic, which will be 10 years old next summer.

“I think, as a part of Baltic’s profile nationally and internationally, and in the way we’re perceived by artists and critics and writers as well as our audience, the Turner Prize will confer another level of accomplishment and achievement,” he said.

“It will make more people more aware of Baltic, so I think it will enhance our reputation.”

Neither can it do Baltic’s reputation any harm that one of the four shortlisted artists, George Shaw, is there because of his first major solo exhibition, which just happens to be running at Baltic until the end of next week.

Another of the chosen artists, Hilary Lloyd, graduated from Newcastle Polytechnic in 1987, which is a feather in the cap of that institution, now known as Northumbria University.

The remaining two shortlisted artists, Martin Boyce and Karla Black, are both Scots who were educated at Glasgow School of Art, so that’s two feathers for Glasgow.

Despite this, Penelope Curtis, who chaired the judging panel, insisted there was no particular theme linking the four, other than that they were all aged under 50 and had produced an outstanding exhibition or other presentation of their work during the past 12 months. “It is intended to promote public discussion of new developments in contemporary British art and is widely recognised as one of the most important and prestigious awards for the visual arts in Europe,” stated the organisers, explaining the purpose of a competition which is worth £5,000 each to the shortlisted artists and a further £20,000 to the eventual winner.

The public discussion promoted by some previous Turner Prize shortlists has been raucous, to say the least.

Proving that one man’s meat is another man’s art was Damien Hirst in 1995, who enflamed the tabloids with his entry Mother and Child, Divided. It consisted of a bisected pickled cow and a calf in glass cases.

Tracey Emin’s My Bed – her unmade and rather scruffy bed – didn’t win her the prize in 1999 but earned her a lot of attention, ranging from adulation to derision.

Chris Ofili made headlines in 1998 with his paintings featuring balls of elephant dung and, three years later, Martin Creed delivered another gift to headline writers, winning with The Lights Going On and Off – literally a room in which the lights went on and off. Another artist threw eggs at it in protest.

One journalist asked yesterday whether the judges deliberately chose artists who would guarantee lots of media attention.

Calmly, Tate Britain’s director said the media attention was purely down to the media.

“I think we have a very interesting list this year,” she said. Many different types of media were represented and any connections between the four chosen artists were purely circumstantial.

However, those seeking controversy might alight on the work of Karla Black, who uses make-up and toiletries in her work, along with topsoil, balsa wood and other unconventional materials.

Judge Katrina Brown, director of The Common Guild in Glasgow, was on hand to explain the merit of the artist’s sculptures, made of cellophane, powder paint and other materials.

Although the artist used “what some would call girly pastel hues”, she reckoned the work appealed equally to men and women. As for that common jibe of “I could have done that”, Ms Black retorted: “Well, you didn’t, and she did. There are lots of things anybody could do if they set their mind to it.”

Godfrey Worsdale said he was “absolutely thrilled” with the shortlist and the exhibition that would result at Baltic.

“I couldn’t be happier with the four artists that have been selected and it’ll be terrific to bring their work to Baltic and the region,” he said.

“I wasn’t the judge who nominated George Shaw but it was very much supported by everyone in the discussion. But I have to say I’m a supporter of his work, otherwise Baltic wouldn’t be showing him.” He reiterated the point that the Turner Prize is worth a great deal in terms of publicity, although he acknowledged that some of it could be derogatory.

The Turner Prize exhibition will run at Baltic from October 21 until January 8, 2012 and the winning artist will be announced at a celebratory event at the Gateshead gallery in December this year.

“I’m now quite anxious to be having to select one of the four artists,” said Mr Worsdale.

“I think they are all great but they are all incredibly different and their practice is so diverse it’ll be like trying to choose between chalk and cheese.”

If just some of the hordes of tourists milling around Tate Britain yesterday could be attracted to the North East later in the year, the Turner Prize will be hailed a huge success by hoteliers and all those in the tourism business.

Yesterday, Tate Britain staff seemed convinced that the critics, at least, would be lured to Gateshead – ready with their bouquets and brickbats.

The exhibition, with national and international attention on it, could pave the way nicely for Baltic’s 10th anniversary year in 2012, although Mr Worsdale was giving little away about that.

“Our job is to keep bringing great projects, whether we’re 10 or 11, and we are negotiating with some very significant artists,” he said.

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