Painter’s prize controversial

Press, 8 November 1984, Page 11

Painter’s prize controversial

NZPA-PA London A man who learned to paint in Wormwood Scrubs prison received a £lO,OOO ($25,560) art award yesterday. Malcolm Morley was the controversial first winner of the new Turner Prize — the most valuable art award in Britain. Mr Morley, who started painting while serving a three-year sentence for house-breaking, was chosen as the painter who had made the “greatest contribution” to art in the last year. But Mr Morley, who has lived in the United States for the last 26 years, was not the number one choice for many art-lovers at the Tate Gallery, where the announcement was made — or

with all the judges. “It was not a unanimous decision,” said the Tate Gallery’s director, Mr Alan Bowness. Some visitors were critical. “I am disgusted, absolutely disgusted,” said one. “I don’t see that he has made much of a contribution to British art,” said another. “Of all the short-listed artists, I thought he was the only non-runner,” said a woman. But the Arts Minister, Lord Gowrie, who made the announcement, agreed with the choice. “He’s such a good painter,” he said. Mr Morley, aged 53, who recently spoke out against the British military presence in Northern Ireland, was not in London to collect

his prize. The self-exiled painter has lived in New York since 1958. He was born in Highgate, north London, and, in his early teens, “began the life of a juvenile stray,” he once said, in and out of borstal for petty crimes, ■

Now, a large, recent Morley painting can fetch up to £ 120,000 ($306,280). Mr Morley paints in an abstract style. The award is made by the Patrons of New Art, a group set up to encourage modern works.