The Catalogues of the John Moores Painting Prize

DRAWING ROOM DISPL AYS

The Catalogues of the John Moores Painting Prize 25 September 2017 – 12 January 2018 1

Cover design based on 1959 John Moores Painting Prize catalogue number 2

Introduction

First held in 1957, the John Moores Painting Prize is named after Liverpool businessman and philanthropist Sir John Moores (1896–1993). The competition culminates in an exhibition held at the Walker Art Gallery every two years and now forms a key component of the Liverpool Biennial Festival of Contemporary Art. John Moores inaugurated the competition to support artists and to bring the best contemporary painting from across the UK to Liverpool.

During its sixty-year history, the John Moores Painting Prize has displayed some of Britain’s greatest contemporary artistic talents. The printed catalogues that accompany each prize have also reflected distinctive moments in twentieth-century print design.

This Drawing Room Display, held in celebration of the sixtieth anniversary of the prize’s creation, showcases the collection of these publications kindly donated to the Paul Mellon Centre’s Library by former Walker Art Gallery Director Timothy Stevens.

Between their covers these small catalogues contain rich histories of post-war British art.

The works recorded within their pages represent the many schools and styles of an exciting, eventful, and often contentious epoch. They also document the Prize’s illustrious roster of jurors – a topic deserving of a cultural history of its own.

The catalogues are significant aesthetic and historical objects, with their covers illuminating trends in design and curatorial methodologies. They also hint at the status and importance of the Prize, as well as the vicissitudes of the institution that hosts it. This display focuses on the catalogues themselves, demonstrating the extent of our holdings and enticing researchers to delve into their pages to discover for themselves the fascinating histories of the John Moores Painting Prize.

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Upright Display Case

The first catalogue cover for the inaugural exhibition which ran from 10 November 1957 to 11 January 1958 (1) is printed in a strong sunshine yellow with a circular motif of white swirls centre-right. The name of the prize is inscribed in a plain capitalized text (with slight serif flourish) just beneath the central line. The Preface declares that the aims of the exhibition are: 1.

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To give Merseyside the chance to see an exhibition of painting and sculpture embracing the best and most vital work being done today through the country; to encourage contemporary artists, particularly the young and progressive.

The catalogue does not credit its designer, but lists the members of the Selection Committee, including Sir John Rothenstein and John Berger, who “was to have been one of the judges, but illness prevented his taking part” (p. 3).

The awards included first prize of £1000 for Jack Smith, a second prize of £750 for Ceri Richards and a third prize of £500 for Victor Pasmore; a junior section first prize of £500 for John Bratby; a prize of £100 in the open section to Sir Matthew Smith; and a prize of £25

in the junior section for F. N. Souza (see Figure 1). In further support of the living UK artists displayed, most works were available for sale with no commission charged.

The next six catalogues are uniform in size with loosely interlinked designs. The 1959 (2) and 1961 (3) publications are some of the most striking of the collection.

Both use bold lowercase black lettering, and show the date and the number of the exhibition. The simplicity of the strong graphics – using black geometric forms with a single red square in 1959, and rectangles in two shades of purple in 1961 – sing out against the plain cream bindings, accentuating the show’s emphasis on contemporary work. The forms are repeated on the inside cover of the 1961 cover (see Figure 2).

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Figure 1 From 1 6

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The 1963 (4) cover, on a mottled beige ground, has smaller writing and no information about the year, but does have the volume embossed in Roman numerals. The transparent, overlapping abstract forms that run in a graded colourway across the centre of the design are more complex and sophisticated than those found on previous covers, but their small scale makes less impact. The fifth catalogue (5) sets a pink print graphic against a red ground (a very similar shade to that used on the ’59 cover). From the third catalogue onwards, these publications contained coloured plates, but those of catalogue 5 provide a particularly effective burst of colour, as they are printed on shiny white paper between the catalogue text, which is printed on a softer tan paper.

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Figure 2 Inside cover of 3 7

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The 1967 catalogue (6), decorated with abstract swathes of neon blue on a black background, contains an inserted text by John Jacob called “A Layman’s Guide to the Exhibition”. This was an educational essay about appreciating modern art, with additional reading suggested at the end. The concluding paragraph begins: “I stressed at the beginning that art is not necessarily beauty.”

Through such injunctions, Jacob’s piece flagged the Prize’s intention to celebrate challenging new art.

The format changes once more in 1969; from this point onwards the catalogues become less stylistically cohesive, and vary in size and thickness. The catalogue from that year (7) reflects the contemporary space age with a light-mirroring silver cover, topped with an interstellar black curve. The cover displays neither date nor number.

The eighth John Moores Painting Prize (8) was held between 27 April and 2 July 1972, altering the time of

year of the display from the winter to the summer months for the next three exhibitions. The extremely rare 1972 catalogue is a recent acquisition to complement the Stevens donation, and is stored in the Paul Mellon Centre rare book collection rather than with the main group of catalogues. The same size as its predecessor, the cover and lettering are royal blue picked out with 3-D green shadowing.

In this year Euan Uglow, Adrian Henri, and Noel Forster won first, second, and third prizes respectively, whilst Howard Hodgkin, Terry Frost, Victor Pasmore, Patrick Heron, David Prentice, and Roger Hilton were among the exhibitors.

Each of the prize winners contributed an “artist’s statement” in a small pamphlet enclosed within the catalogue. Henri’s takes the form of a poem.

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“JM9” (9) of 1974 features a particularly bold acid yellow square that gestures to the large rectangular yellow block of the year’s prize-winning piece, Figure Against a Yellow Foreground by Myles Murphy, whilst the Prize’s tenth anniversary in 1976 was celebrated with an understated plain off-white cover embossed with “jm10” (10).

The eleventh show in 1978 coincided with the twenty-first birthday of the Prize, and was distinguished with an embossed gold cover (11). Prize founder John Moores contributed a Preface that both celebrated the efficacy of the biennial competition, and announced a new free bus service for local schools, to guarantee “our important function of ensuring that the public meets its artists”.

Prize winning alumni were invited to participate in a hors concours capacity (where the artists would engage in a friendly contest, but not compete for a prize), to which 10

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Jack Smith (the winner in 1957), Patrick Heron (1959), Henry Mundy (1961), David Hockney (1967), Richard Hamilton (1969), and Jack Smith (1972), amongst others, contributed (See Figure 3).

From 1978 onwards, the “purchase prize” was reinstated, meaning that the Walker Art Gallery began to automatically acquire the first-prize winning work. Previously, acquisitions from the competition had been less systematic.

Importantly a number of paintings bought and donated by patron John Moores found their way into the Walker’s collection. These included important works such as Jack Smith’s Creation and Crucifixion (1957), Roger Hilton’s March 1963 (1963), and David Hockney’s Peter getting out of Nick's Pool (1967).

Figure 3 List of Previous Prize Winners from 11 11

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John Moores was knighted in 1980 (12). That year’s catalogue includes a photograph showing him seated at the head of the JMPP jury (see Figure 4). In his Preface for that year he discusses “the immense pleasure” the Prize has brought him. In 1982 (13), his Preface addressed the social problems faced by Merseyside as a consequence of economic deprivation and racial unrest as manifested in the Toxteth riots of 1981 (see Figure 5). His words championed the role of the arts as “a means of expression and of happiness”, and wrote of their key role “in developing a vigorous and caring society”.

In 1985 (14) and 1987 (15) the covers, though of different sizes, bore similar motifs that reflected a new wave design aesthetic with pointed mauve triangles, and – in the case of the 1987 cover – a matt silver ground. They were much thicker than any of the catalogues

published before, illustrating every exhibit. The competition in 1985 was notable in featuring a number of remarkable women painters, including Kate Whiteford, Laetitia Yarp, Paula Rego, Jennifer Durant, Stephanie Bergman, Thérèse Oulton, Joanna Hyslop, Marthe Larson, Tricia Gillman, and Lisa Milroy. Oulton and Milroy both took £100 prizes. All of the entries feature artist biographies and many contain short quotes from the artists (see Figure 6), an endeavour that is continued in the 1987 catalogue.

This display case also features a poster advertising the 1985 exhibition using the same design as the catalogue, and a notice to artists from the same year outlining the conditions of entry. The final item in this case is a reproduction of a photograph of David Hockney receiving his prize from John Moores in front of his winning work in 1967.

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Figure 4 Image of 1980 JMPP Jury from 12. Patrick Caulfield, Sir Norman Reid, Sir John Moores, Ian Stephenson, Nigel Greenwood

Figure 5 Figure 6 Artist Statement by Paula Rego, from 14 14

Preface by Sir John Moores CBE, from 13

Figure 7 Image of 1989 JMPP Jury from item 16. Barbara Toll, ThÊrèse Oulton, Kate Whiteford, and Tim Hilton

Figure 8 Photograph of Lisa Milroy with her winning work in 1989 15

Small display case

From 1989 (16) onwards the catalogues become larger and more professional. They each have an allocated ISBN and contain additional publishing information meaning that they can be catalogued more easily and referenced more systematically by researchers. Before this sixteenth publication, the catalogues had taken a simple booklet format; now they were bound with spines displaying the inscription “JOHN MOORES LIVERPOOL EXHIBITION” followed by the exhibition number. In 1989, the exhibition was promoted as “the leading open show of its kind” (Preface

by Sir Richard Forster). This came soon after the Walker Art Gallery, together with a number of other Merseyside institutions including Lady Lever Art Gallery, Sudeley House, and The Liverpool Museum, became the first four members of the National Museums and Galleries on Merseyside Trust in 1986. Now known as National Museums Liverpool, the group was the first set of national museums with Trustee status outside of the capital, and is still the only national museums group based entirely outside of London.

The jury in 1989 consisted of three women and one man: Barbara Toll, Thérèse Oulton, 16

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Kate Whiteford, and Tim Hilton (see Figure 7); the same year saw the first solo woman winner of the main prize, Lisa Milroy (see Figure 8). It should be noted that there is a long and encouraging history of women’s participation in the prize: Evelyn Williams won the sculpture prize in 1961; Mary Martin was the joint winner of the 1969 main prize, together with Richard Hamilton; Laurie Baldwyn took third prize in 1976; Gillian Ayres was second in 1982; and Kate Whiteford third in ’87. Whilst no means equally represented amongst their male counterparts in terms of the number of selected entries or prizes awarded, there is a decent record of women winning smaller prizes.

The 1989 catalogue is introduced

by Walker Art Gallery curator Alex Kidson, who addressed important questions about the scope, ambition, and value of the Prize, such as “What are the fundamental premises of the exercise?” He

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concludes that part of the enduring value of the show is that it forces participants, jurors, and viewers to confront difficult questions about the nature and value of contemporary art and our systems for addressing it.

A further major stylistic change in the catalogues in this crucial year for the Prize, was the decision to begin to place the winning work on the covers. Lisa Milroy’s witty and provocative Handles required no framing device and is underlined by a simple black banner. Later works are set into the page by a border so that they are clearly independent visual statements and not part of a design.

Andrzej Jackowski’s The Beekeeper’s Son, which the artist described in the catalogue as a “rich terrain full of desire and fear, intimacy and distance, dark flesh and dead fruit”, adorns the cover as the first prize winner of 1991 (17).

The warm ochres and terracottas are set against a plain, cool, sea

green, with the motif of a “17” made of rectangles hinged with triangles in each corner. It is the first catalogue in which every image is illustrated in colour.

The 1993 catalogue (18) has a lively colour scheme of purple and yellow patterns that form an “18” at the back. By contrast, Peter Doig’s winning work, Blotter, which this bold graphic pattern frames, is focused on mark making, texture, and “the process through which the painting developed: soaking paint into canvas” (Doig, 1993). Richard Forster and Julian Treuherz’s “Foreword” pays tribute to the Prize’s patron and namesake, Sir John Moores, who had died earlier that year, writing: “the present exhibition stands, therefore, as a memorial to him, and as a tribute to one of the sustained and exemplary enterprises of patronage in contemporary British art” (see Figure 9).

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The nineteenth Prize of 1995 (19) went ahead after the Moores family confirmed that they wished to continue supporting the exhibition. The catalogue begins with an interview with the four judges, who were Frances Spalding, Timothy Hyman, Basil Beattie, and Alex Kidson. Titled “Trial by Jury”, it asks probing questions about the relevance of the Prize and the nature of the judging process.

First-prize winner David Leapman’s Double-Tongued Knowability graces the cover, its black ground separated from the matching black ground of the publication by two thin white lines.

The fortieth year of the Prize (1997) (20) was celebrated with another poem by Liverpool poet, painter, and musician Adrian Henri called “The Letter” (see Figure 10).

Henri had won second prize in 1972 and had been approached to sit on the jury in 1960. “The Letter” was

commissioned by Walker Art Gallery Keeper Julian Treuherz, who wrote to Henri:

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I would very much like to publish the poem in the catalogue and would also like it if you could read the poem at the Awards Dinner which is sponsored by the Littlewoods Organisation and will take place on the evening of 5 November at St George’s Hall.

(Julian Treuherz to Adrian Henri, 12 September 1997, Ref: 4101, Walker Art Gallery Archive, John Moores Painting Prize, Year 20 Box 1 of 6.)

Henri enclosed the poem, which seems to mourn an artist’s regular rejection from the exhibition, with a postcard of his work, Graveyard, The Parsonage, Spring (1995–6).

Figure 9 Foreword by Richard Forster and Julian Treuherz, from 18

Figure 10 Adrian Henri, “The Letter�, from 20 19

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It would be three years from the competition held in 1999 (21) before the next Prize in 2002 (22), when the programme was reorganised, situating the competition in even years. No full printed catalogue was produced, but rather a small booklet, which is displayed in concertina fashion to show as much of the content as possible.

Like the eight catalogue, this is also a newly acquired rarity, and will be housed in the rare book collection. It is bookended by Peter Davies’ winning Super Star Fucker – Andy Warhol Text Painting, and a text by judge and presenter of Channel 4’s “This is Modern Art” series, Matthew Collings, which denies that aesthetics were part of the judging criteria that year.

Collings instead drew attention to the predominance of text paintings in the selection, and overall the catalogue speaks clearly to the exciting era in British art in which it was produced.

In 2004 (23) the competition stopped being a purchase prize.

The first award remained £25,000, but the “real value” of this prize was increased “as donating the winning picture is no longer a condition of the award” (Lady Grantchester and Julian Treuherz, Foreword).

Now supported by the Liverpool Biennial and Arts Council England, the glossy cover of the catalogue had inner flaps. Pop star Jarvis Cocker sat on the jury, along with art curator Ann Bukantas, Director of the Contemporary Art Society Gill Hedley, and artists Callum Innes and Gavin Turk.

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Large display case

The 2006 catalogue (24) is the last to feature the number of the competition on the spine and cover, and the subsequent publications feature the year instead. The practice of incorporating the winning submission into the cover design persists, apart from on the 2010 publication.

The twenty-fourth Prize exhibition was held between 16 September and 26 November on the Prize’s forty-ninth anniversary.

The front and back inside covers and flaps feature a facsimile of judge Tracey Emin’s handwritten notes (see Figures 11 & 12).

The notes are accompanied by line drawings of two cats. The full jury was formed of Peter Blake (artist), Jason Brooks (artist), Ann Bukantas (Curator of Fine Art, Walker Art Gallery), Emin (artist), and Andrea Rose (Director of Visual Arts, British Council), and they selected Martin Greenland’s Before Vermeer’s Clouds as the winning work.

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Figures 11 & 12 2010 JMPP judge Tracey Emin’s handwritten notes from 24 23

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The 2008 exhibition (25) coincided with a momentous year for the host city. Liverpool became European Capital of Culture and the stage for a multitude of cultural activities and urban regeneration projects. Peter McDonald’s “colourful world” of “cartoon-like simplicity” where people engaged in everyday activities “waver at the point where figuration might tip at any moment into abstraction” was chosen by jurists Jake and Dinos Chapman (artists), Sacha Craddock (art critic/curator), Graham Crowley (artist), and Paul Morrison (artist) to grace the cover. Out of context the detail chosen appears sinister – a disembodied arm stabs an amorphous mustard yellow mass, while the full work shows an artist using a pointed tool to work on a canvas.

The plain royal blue bindings and print of the 2010 catalogue (26) echo the blue tones of the winning work, Spectrum Jesus,

by Keith Coventry. Three of the judges, Sir Norman Rosenthal (freelance curator and writer), Ged Quinn (artist), and Alison Watt (artist) contributed short pieces of writing about evaluative criteria and processes.

The most recent catalogues, published between 2010 and 2016 (27, 28, 29), all carry a small, circular prize logo with intertwined JM lettering in the centre (see Figure 13). The catalogue of 2014 is particularly notable for being the only one of our complete set of John Moores Painting Prize catalogues to have a book jacket.

We have displayed the length of the jacket, bearing details reproduced from Rose Wylie’s winning work, PV Windows and Floorboards, as well as the strong graphic forms of the binding design.

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Figure 13 JMPP logo, in use from 2012 and a feature of 26–29

Figure 14 Winners of the John Moores Painting Prize China from 29

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In 2010 the John Moores Painting Prize China was launched at an exhibition in Shanghai in August.

The paintings by the five Chinese winners (see Figure 14) were then displayed at the Walker Art Gallery alongside the works in the UK exhibition. This has become the model for the subsequent Chinese competitions, which are also held every two years.

Sixty years after its inception, the John Moores Painting Prize remains a vital galvanizing force for contemporary painting, both in the Walker Art Gallery’s exhibition programme, and throughout the art world. As well as helping contribute to a better understanding of the Prize, the catalogues offer a fascinating focus of art historical interest in their own right.

All the catalogues are available in the Paul Mellon Centre Library and searchable on the Library Catalogue under ‘John Moores Painting Prize’.

All images copyright Walker Art Gallery, National Museums Liverpool.

Display and text produced by Dr Hana Leaper. With special thanks to Ann Bukantas, Alex Kidson, Alex Patterson, and Katherine Gazzard.

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