Threadneedle Prize

BBC News has discovered The Threadneedle Prize and has posted a slide show of the seven shortlisted entries (title link). Being a sexist organisation, Auntie is excited by the fact that six of these alleged artworks are by women. If it knew anything about art, it would view this fact as a criticism of female artists, not something to enthuse about. Sarah R Key's Everything In Its Right Place is the best of a very bad deal. Why on earth anyone should fork out £25,000 for bad art is beyond me. A clue is to be found in the self-contradictory gobbledygook that is the mission statement of the prize. "The £25,000 Threadneedle Prize is the UK’s leading showcase for paintings and sculptures that promote the practice of representational art, but challenge its language and assumptions." In short, they're looking for the worst representational art they can find! Success! Two scraps of good news: 1) entry to the show, which opens at the Mall Galleries on 22 September, is free, and 2) all works in the show will now be eligible for the Visitors’ Choice prize of £10,000 (CLICK).