Monday, 4 November, 2002, 08:32 GMT

Turner Prize: Is it art?

"Cold, mechanical, conceptual bullshit" is how culture minister Kim Howells has
described this year's Turner Prize entries.
The Tate Modern exhibition "infuriated" and "disappointed" Mr Howells and he pinned a frank
note to a message board at the gallery on his way out.
After studying art for four years in the 60s, the Minister for Tourism, Film and Broadcasting
believes British art is "lost" and we need to invoke more passion about it.
He laments that plain speaking is always missing from discussions about art; and to make
amends, compared Liam Gillick's "very, very boring" perspex roof to a canteen ceiling and
said he wouldn't cross the road for Keith Tyson's sculptures.
Mr Howells recognises that this is the work that sells and that modern artists are shaped by
the tastes of their teachers but called for a creative revolution to "blow them out of the water."
Do you find Mr Howells' frankness refreshing or limiting? Are his views old-fashioned
to you or truthful? How much credibility does the controversial Turner Prize have with
you?

I do wish the judges would visit my back garden, my husband would win the Turner Prize
without question! Such a wonderful arrangement of bricks with white plastic garden
furniture placed elegantly around said bricks and then some foliage placed on top
randomly cut from overgrown trees it's a winner every year!!!
The objective of this type of art is to make people feel emotion, regardless of whether that
emotion is positive or negative. If you feel sadness or pity for these artists, you've completed
your part of the bargain with them; they have gotten an emotion out of you. Personally, I
make a point of not feeling anything. I have no gripe against modern art, but the Turner Prize
ignores an awful lot of good art in order to show us the ordinary.
Personally I think it's all very twisted. It's not real art, it's just bits of rubbish and they call it art,
that's not talent. I read a comment that said the entries for the Turner Prize at least made you
think! Well I'm sorry but that is total nonsense. The minister made very honest comments and
I would like to thank him on behalf of all of us who recognise this rubbish for what it really is;
a way for people with no talent to gain some attention!

I like the idea of a prize that helps push the boundaries and makes us think about art.
However every year we have this debate we never seem to get beyond name calling. No one
seems to be expressing any opinion about what IS art, and then measuring the Turner
entrants against a standard. Can someone on the Turner committee put forward their
definition of Art?
One of art's main functions is to make people see things from a different viewpoint and the
Turner Prize obviously does that. Whether you like it or not is a matter of personal preference
but it at least made you think. Artists have always experimented and most of these
experiments have been unpopular at the time. Fifty years from now many of the exhibits will
be accepted as quite conventional.
I think the Turner Prize stimulates thought and discussion about the nature and direction of
art. Often its entries seem bizarre in concept or appear poorly executed - but at least it
constantly challenges our perceptions.
Every year we have the same controversy. Well, it is art, you may not like it or understand it
but that doesn't stop it being art. I am pleased that many artists are not pandering to the
'chocolate box' tastes of the majority and at least attempting to push art forward in new
directions. Personally, I find modern art exciting, and have done since my first visit to
Madrid's Museum of Modern Art. Of course 'traditional' art has merit but not to the exclusion
of contemporary art.
The Turner Prize contestants are chosen as a result of their track records over the previous
year. If people are not familiar with the works made by the artists prior to their selection then,
inevitably, they will find their entry exhibits inaccessible. I work in the arts, I travel
abroad on business and I am well aware of the reasons that presently ensure that
Britart has such an important place in the international art world. If you still cannot
understand what I am on about then try asking why it is that Tate Modern has such a
high level of visitor attendance.
Some this year are truly good. Yet the one that is attracting the media attention frankly does
not deserve it. It is a total waste of canvas and anyone in my department could have done it.
The three favourites are great. All of them deserve merit and are separately and differently
brilliant. Yet again though it has become a media circus of the obscure and this is what I
detest about the Turner Prize. It ruins what is honestly good in the competition.
The best thing to do about the Turner Prize is to ignore it. Don't report on it, don't pay to go
and see it, don't talk about it. Then these artists will be forced to stop thinking about how to
get headlines, and instead start thinking about art.
Adapted from BBC 2004

TASK 1
Read the following text, and match them to the most suitable heading from the
list supplied. Each heading can only be used ONCE. There four heading will not
need. Text 0 has been matched to its heading is an example
A A straight forward voice al last!

Text

Heading

G One has to understand rather than feel

H So many people cannot be wrong

I They are pulling our legs

B Different trends can coexist

C I do not respond to provocation
D Innovation must always be controversial
E It is clever But is it art?
F It is the same old stuff anyway

J Too much publicity

THE INDEPENDENT MONDAY 30 august AUGUST 2004

Wanted: Loving family to adopt Italian scholar as

'granddad au pair'
Seventy-nine year old seeks family in need of a grandfather. Would bring 500 a
month for a family ___0 ___ to adopt him as a "granddad au pair." This is the plaintive
small ad offered for the classified pages of Rome's newspapers this week by Giorgio
Angelozzi, a widower.
So startling is his cry for help that yesterday, Italy's best-selling daily paper, Corriere
Della Sera, splashed the story across its ___1__ pages. The warm, welcoming Italian
family of old is ___2___, they fear.
For 40 years Mr Angelozzi taught Latin and Greek at Liceo Giulio Cesare, one of
Rome's most sought-after high schools. "I watched an army of people go by," he
sighed. "Now I find myself ___3___ for human contact. Life wanted to teach me a
lesson."
Italy has one of the lowest __4__ rates in the world; high rents and poor nursery
school and social security provision ___5___ most couples from having more than two
children. But it is paying the price for making parenthood a ___6___: depopulated
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jobs that Italians treat with disdain.
And then there are the widows and widowers of Mr Angelozzi's __8__.
Today three million Italian pensioners live alone, and the number is increasing rapidly.
There are 10.5 million Italians above the age of 65 - nearly 20 per cent of the
population. With increasing __9__, that number is expected to rise to 15 million in the
next 20 years.
But not all are willing to __10__ themselves to a long, lonely finale. Mr Angelozzi has
eye problems and gets the __11__ in his arms, but his brain is as alert as ever. For 40
years he stuffed his head with __12__.
"Literature is my drug," he said. "I studied with the Jesuits for eight years, and by my
third year of high school I had read 3,000 books." Today the only __13__ of that
knowledge and passion are Mr Angelozzi's seven cats. His wife Lucia, one year his
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didn't want to have children of her own so she could work full time as a doctor."

Of old age he says, the passing years are like the hours of the day: from 40 to 60 the
aspect is the same as __15__ of the sun on a summer's day from 2pm to 4pm. But
suddenly night and old age arrive. "Now," he __16__, "just making my bed tires me
out. But I'm not finished with dreaming." Mr Angelozzi's dream is that a __17__ of
learning and passion for classics might be of use to someone, somewhere: a child or
grandchild whose family might __18__ him with a little gratitude and affection. It
doesn't seem a lot to __19__ . "Quidquid calcaveris rosa fiat," he said, pulling a Latin
tag from the hoard in his __20__ . "Wherever rain falls, a rose blooms."
By Peter Popham. Adapted from The Independent Digital UK LtD 2004

Task 2
Read the text and complete each gap with ONE suitable word from the list
supplied. The write your the answers in the boxes provided. Each word can
be used only ONCE. There are six words you will not need. Gap 0 has been
completed as an example

ask

deter

longevity

risk

begging

evidence

luxury

shakes

beneficiaries

fertility

news

that

blame

generation

remind

vanishing

classics

head

repay

willing

contact

lamented

resign

work

dependence

lifetime

willing

11

shakes

news

12

classics

vanishing

13

beneficiaries

begging

14

blame

fertility

15

That

deter

16

lamented

luxury

17

lifetime

dependence

18

repay

generation

19

ask

longevity

20

head

10

resign

0
1