Write on Art

The fourth cycle of Write on Art was launched in autumn 2020 in partnership with Art UK. The judges for the 2020–21 cycle were author Emma Dabiri, writer and broadcaster Alastair Sooke, Turner Prize-winning artist Lubaina Himid and Director of the Whitechapel Gallery Iwona Blazwick. After a bumper year last year, our submission numbers normalised to pre-pandemic levels. In total, we received 214 submissions across both categories: 138 in the Years 12/13 category and 76 in the Years 10/11 category.

The winners of the 2020/21 cycle were:

Years 12/13

First place: Aoife Hogan on Children and Chalked Wall 3 by Joan Eardley

Second place: Hanifah Smith on All Will Be Forgotten by Chris Wilson

Runners-up: Jasmine Donaldson on Melanie and Me Swimming by Michael Andrews; Maisie Fraser on We Are Making a New World by Paul Nash; Penelope Ogieriakhi on Jazz by Anthony Frost

Years 10/11

First place: Variaam Tratt on Preserve ‘Beauty’ by Anya Gallaccio

Second place: Hannah Bugeja on Lilith by John Collier

Runners-up: Taya Minchington on Sappho and Erinna in a Garden at Mytilene by Simeon Solomon; Ella Male on Nameless and Friendless by Emily Mary Osborn; Ava Winter on 1939 by Hans Feibusch

Robert Smirke, The Seven Ages of Man: The Lover, ‘As You Like It’, II, vii (detail), 1798–1801, oil on panel. Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Fund, B1975.5.10