Lynn Painter-Stainers PrizePainters’ Hall, until 1 December
Art competitions suffer from a basic problem: how to apply a first-past-the-post system designed for racing to art. In some cases, contestants don’t even qualify for the same event — this year’s Turner Prize, typically, pits film and photography against installation. To avoid this sort of stupidity, the Lynn Painter-Stainers Prize — now holding its third exhibition at Painters’ Hall — confines itself to ‘creative representational painting’ displaying ‘the skill of draughtsmanship’. But even this allows for invidious differences of subject, medium and approach. How is it judged? As one of this year’s selectors I happen to know, and without doing a Lynn Barber and completely blowing the gaff, I think it’s fair to explain.
Unlike the Byzantine machinations behind the Turner exposed by Barber in the press last year, the Painter-Stainers’ selection process is open and transparent.
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