TATE BRITAIN


TATE BRITAIN

Turner Prize

The Turner Prize: Year by Year

2006

Winner:
Tomma Abts

Shortlist:

Jury:

  • Lynn Barber, writer, Observer
  • Margot Heller, Director, South London Gallery
  • Matthew Higgs, Director and Chief Curator, White Columns, New York
  • Andrew Renton, writer and Director of Curating, Goldsmiths College
  • Nicholas Serota, Director, Tate
Turner Prize 2006 exhibition website

Traditionalists may be pleased as painter wins Turner Prize

The 2006 Turner Prize featured a broad range of media with sculpture, painting, installation and video represented. Phil Collins introduced the first ever consistent ‘live’ element into the exhibition. He set up a working office in the gallery manned by a team of researchers looking for participants for his next project. In the end the jury awarded the prize to Tomma Abts for her densely wrought canvases. She was the first female painter to win and this decision was welcomed by the public.

Tomma Abts' room in the 2006 exhibition © Tate Photography, J Fernandes and M Heathcote Tomma Abts' room in the 2006 exhibition © Tate Photography, J Fernandes and M Heathcote
The 2006 Turner Prize poster The 2006 Turner Prize poster
The 2006 Turner Prize reception invitation (front) The 2006 Turner Prize reception invitation (front)

Quotes

‘After years of unmade beds, pickled sheep and lightbulbs that switch on and off, Britain’s most prestigious art prize was won last night by the most unlikely kind of artist – a painter … Her win comes amid talk of a return to painting in the art world.’

– Tim Cornell, The Scotsman, December 2006

‘It’s not often you get a chance to be part of a living artwork, so when a job came up at Collins’ company, I decided to apply … It’s the first time in the Turner history that real people have been such an integral part of the work … The office is certainly a bold idea.’

– Lena Corner, researcher for Shady Lane Productions, Phil Collins’ ongoing work at Tate Britain, The Independent, August 2007

 

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