Christmas has come early for the 5 artists—together with 5 composers—who’ve been chosen because the recipients of this yr’s Paul Hamlyn Awards for Artists. To have fun 30 years of this initiative, the Hamlyn Basis (PHF) has elevated the quantity given to every recipient from £60,000 final yr to £75,000. The annual awards are the biggest of their sort within the UK, however the purpose why they’re so particular goes past the fiscal. Whereas there are prizes aplenty all through the artwork world, the Paul Hamlyn Awards for Artists are distinctive in that they arrive with no circumstances. Regardless of providing a big chunk of cash, there is no such thing as a obligation to do something in return. And the winners can spend the cash, which is dispersed over three years, on no matter they need.
“Most alternatives artists are supplied—commissions, exhibitions, educating, and so forth—include strings hooked up. They not often pay for the time artists have to spend considering and making an attempt issues out within the studio,” says the gallerist and chair of PHF, Jane Hamlyn, who was instrumental in establishing the awards in 1994 as a part of the philanthropic legacy of her late writer father, Paul. Certainly, many main prizes include circumstances: the Turner Prize requires nominees to make work for its eponymous exhibition, for instance, whereas the John Moores Portray Prize is given to a single, submitted work. The Future Era Artwork Prize, established by Ukraine’s Victor Pinchuk Basis, commissions shortlisted artists to make work for a present—later toured to the Venice Biennale—whereas the winnings are break up between a money prize and an “funding of their follow”.
Hamlyn describes her household basis’s awards as giving every artist “a respiratory area, a chance to flee from a few of the issues that crush on them and to concentrate on what’s vital to them. We felt it was vital to recognise the challenges artists face, the unseen work they do and the payments they need to pay.”
This uncommon probability for a inventive breather is vastly appreciated. “A no-strings-attached award is a really treasured reward: you don’t need to fill out a kind or tick 100 bins; it’s like pure vitality and it triggers so many issues one can do,” says the veteran efficiency artist Anne Bean, considered one of this yr’s roster. She says she plans to make use of her award to increase her work with younger artists in Zambia.
Her fellow 2024 award winners are the British Kenyan artist Grace Ndiritu, famend for incorporating transformative shamanic ritual and meditation into her work; Manchester-based Barry Finan, who works in textual content and ceramics; the Greek British video, sound and efficiency artist Mikhail Karikis; and the artist, environmentalist and group prepare dinner Sean Roy Parker.
Because the age vary of this yr’s winners makes clear, Hamlyn Awards go to artists—or composers—of any era offered they reside and work within the UK and aren’t at present in schooling. The late German artist Gustav Metzger, who moved to the UK in 1939, obtained his award aged 80 in 2006, and Rose Wylie was in her 70s when she obtained hers in 2011; Yinka Shonibare and Jeremy Deller, in the meantime, had been of their mid-30s when chosen in 1998 and 2001 respectively.
A mark of high quality
Maybe testomony to the standard of this choice course of is the distinctive work made by so many awardees, and the way in which during which these artists have continued to construct on their follow and acquire wider acknowledgement. Phyllida Barlow was a recipient in 2007, a decade earlier than representing Britain on the Venice Biennale, whereas the 2022 Biennale Golden Lion winner Sonia Boyce was awarded in 2016. Mike Nelson is one other Hamlyn Award winner (2001) who then went on to occupy the British Pavilion in 2011, and Charlie Prodger obtained the award earlier than happening to signify Scotland on the occasion. (Alberta Whittle, Scotland’s 2022 consultant, obtained the award in the identical yr.) A slew of Turner Prize winners and nominees have additionally benefited, together with Deller, Hew Locke, Anthea Hamilton, Simon Starling, Jim Lambie, Anya Gallaccio and Nelson.
A collection of the 2023 cohort: (Again row, left to proper) Marcus Macdonald on behalf of Black Obsidian Sound System (B.O.S.S.), Nneka Cummins, Pippa Murphy, Jamie Crewe, Imran Perretta, Helen Cammock. Entrance row, left to proper: Ain Bailey, Hyelim Kim, Edward George. Not pictured: Francesca Pidgeon (Dilettante), Karine Polwart (a part of composing duo with Pippa Murphy), eight different members of Black Obsidian Sound System
Photograph: Emile Holba
However whether or not or not they go on to attain public plaudits, the essential function of the Hamlyn Awards is to assist artists’ private {and professional} progress on their very own phrases. As Jane Hamlyn states, “Prizes have their place, however that’s not what these awards are about.” In our ever extra transactional occasions, this distinctive reward of unconditional time and area has by no means appeared extra treasured.
