Spartacus Chetwynd, Luke Fowler, Paul Noble and Elizabeth Price are the four nominees for this year's Turner Prize, announced today 1 May 2012.

Chetwynd is a performer, Fowler works in film and photography, Noble creates technical drawings and Price presents video installations. 

Britain's most respected annual art prize, the Turner awards £25,000 to the year's most outstanding British artist aged under 50 years of age for an outstanding exhibition or other presentation of their work in the twelve months preceding,

Work by the shortlisted artists will be shown in an exhibition at Tate Britain, opening on October 2.

The winner will be announced at a ceremony on December 3.

Over the recent decades the Turner Prize has played a significant role in provoking debate about visual art and the growing public interest in contemporary British art in particular, and has become widely recognised as one of the most important and prestigious awards for the visual arts in Europe. 

Last year the prize went to Martin Boyce and previous winners include Howard Hodgkin, Anish Kapoor and Grayson Perry. The award has also seen some unexpected results: Tracey Emin's My Bed (pictured), was overlooked in 1999 despite drawing large crowds to the Tate.

The Chapman brothers lost out to Grayson Perry in 2003 – Perry accepted the award dressed as a girl while Jake Chapman described "losing the Turner prize to a grown man dressed as a small girl" as his "most embarrassing moment".

 

A neon artwork sign reading "More Passion" has been installed in Number 10 Downing Street by artist Tracey Emin. The 48-year-old artist installed it last week after being invited by Prime Minister David Cameron to create a work of art last year.

The sign hangs outside the Terracotta Room, on the first floor of the prime minister's official residence. Emin has donated the work to the Government Art Collection.

The artist was nominated for the Turner Prize in 1999 for her infamous unmade bed, and is known for similarly candid pieces such as a tent containing the names of all the people she has Emin's has created a series of neon works spelling out heartfelt messages
In February, she said she would be installing the neon in a newer room and on plastic, rather than screwed to the wall, as it was a listed building.

"It has to relate to different people on different levels because of all the dignitaries and world leaders and religious groups who go to Number 10," she said.

She said the Downing Street piece would not feature any X-rated slogans, which have appeared in past works.
The Sunday Telegraph reported that the Terracotta Room was often used for hospitality purposes and would be visible to those who climbed Number 10's main staircase - famous for its adjacent wall of pictures of former prime ministers. Rooms leading off it include the White Room and a study once used by Margaret Thatcher.

Another recent neon entitled I Never Stopped Loving You, which was installed on the seafront in Margate, sold for almost £59,000 when it went for auction in October 2010.

Source BBC news

Twelve artists including Tracey Emin, Martin Creed and Chris Ofili will design a set of posters for the Olympic and Paralympic Games next summer, as Britain seeks to use the events to showcase its cultural heritage.

The nominated artists were chosen from a list of some 100, but organisers would not disclose how they came to their final decision.

Asked why Damien Hirst had not made the list, for example, Ruth Mackenzie, director of the Cultural Olympiad, replied: "I think the answer is, we're not going to go there."

Emin told reporters at an event at Tate Britain gallery, held exactly a year before the London 2012 Festival event gets underway, that she wanted her poster to be a celebration of life in the city.

"(I want to) show the world that London can really throw a party and that was what it was like with the royal wedding," she said, referring to the recent marriage of Prince William and Kate Middleton that attracted a huge global television audience.

"In times of depression, what came across as really, really cool was the arts. Arts and culture is the soul of the country," she added. "I'm interested in the party scene, the celebration."

For Michael Craig-Martin, also selected, artists had the advantage over graphic designers when it came to making posters for an event like the Olympics.

"Artists always bring something different, because you are bringing a personal language to it."

He said that while art was not competitive like sport, even when a major award like the Turner Prize was announced, he did suffer from envy of other artists' works, including Martin Creed.

"The minute I looked (at one of his recent works), I felt completely jealous that he had done it and I hadn't."

The full list of commissioned artists is:

* Fiona Banner

* Michael Craig-Martin

* Martin Creed

* Tracey Emin

* Anthea Hamilton

* Howard Hodgkin

* Gary Hume

* Sarah Morris

* Chris Ofili

* Bridget Riley

* Bob and Roberta Smith

* Rachel Whiteread

The London 2012 Festival, which is the culmination of the four-year Cultural Olympiad, will run for 12 weeks from June 21-September 9 and include events around the country.

Dozens of projects have already been announced, ranging from the countrywide Big Dance and The Reading Challenge to a production of Hector Berlioz's "The Trojans" and pop star Damon Albarn's contemporary opera "Dr. Dee."

Something approaching a final list of events will be ready by October, Mackenzie said, as would details of the festival's budget and private sponsors.

Some of the events have been specifically commissioned for the Olympiad climax while others have been held to coincide with the festival.

(Reporting by Mike Collett-White, editing by Paul Casciato) Reuteurs

Once labelled  "enfant terrible"  Tracey Emin’s work has been nothing if not consistently explicit. The YBA who broke into the art world in the mid-’90s with highly personal, sexually charged artwork is singing a somewhat different tune for her latest work to be installed at Downing Street.

Last week Emin told the BBC that there is no reason to fear the residence of senior lords will be disparaged by the innuendo, lewd jokes or biting memories that filled her earlier work. Emin feels in this case she needs to make something for everyone, as she told the BBC: “It has to relate to different people on different levels because of all the dignitaries and world leaders and religious groups.”



The work is to be in neon. A recent Emin neon sold at auction for nearly $100,000. It said I Never Stopped Loving You in pink letters.

 

Tracey  was invited by David Cameron to install the work