0:00:00 > 0:00:00JOHN MOORES PAINTING PRIZE FKR Z671H/01 BRD000000
0:17:45 > 0:17:48Many, many years ago, I left Liverpool from this very station
0:17:48 > 0:17:51to enrol at the Chelsea School of Art in London,
0:17:51 > 0:17:55and what inspired me to become a painter was the Walker Art Gallery
0:17:55 > 0:17:59and one of the city's greatest ever cultural achievements -
0:17:59 > 0:18:01The John Moores Painting Prize.
0:18:02 > 0:18:04Put together all the names
0:18:04 > 0:18:07and art movements represented by John Moores winners and you've
0:18:07 > 0:18:12pretty much got the story of the best of post-war British painting.
0:18:12 > 0:18:14David Hockney won the top prize,
0:18:14 > 0:18:18Peter Blake won a junior prize, Howard Hodgkin came second twice,
0:18:18 > 0:18:21Bridget Riley won a pink fluffy elephant...
0:18:22 > 0:18:24Well, actually, she won 100 quid.
0:18:25 > 0:18:28But who will join that illustrious company this year
0:18:28 > 0:18:30and become a future art star?
0:18:32 > 0:18:35'I'm following this year's competition, meeting all the
0:18:35 > 0:18:40'shortlisted artists and speaking to some famous art world figures,
0:18:40 > 0:18:42'before we find out who joins
0:18:42 > 0:18:46'the pantheon of John Moores prize winners.
0:18:46 > 0:18:49'So, if you want to know why painting is not dead,
0:18:49 > 0:18:52'not even vaguely poorly, watch this film.'
0:18:56 > 0:18:59In 1971, when I got on that crowded train to London,
0:18:59 > 0:19:01Liverpool was at rock bottom,
0:19:01 > 0:19:05but I was certain I would become the most celebrated painter
0:19:05 > 0:19:06of my generation -
0:19:06 > 0:19:10I'm mean, look at the quality of the work I was producing at the time...
0:19:13 > 0:19:15But I fell out of love with painting,
0:19:15 > 0:19:17and became the world's first fat, angry, balding,
0:19:17 > 0:19:21tight-suited, Liverpudlian, Marxist-Jewish comedian, instead.
0:19:21 > 0:19:22Shut up!
0:19:24 > 0:19:27Meanwhile, Liverpool was being regenerated by art,
0:19:27 > 0:19:30and I've been wondering what I've missed.
0:19:30 > 0:19:34Today, the arts add £85 million per year to Liverpool's economy,
0:19:34 > 0:19:38and you could say John Moores kicked it all off.
0:19:41 > 0:19:45He was a post office messenger boy, forced to work in conditions
0:19:45 > 0:19:49as cramped and devoid of world-class British painting as these.
0:19:54 > 0:19:58Undaunted, he went on to create the Littlewoods pools, catalogue
0:19:58 > 0:20:02and retail empire, and as a very rich man, he developed
0:20:02 > 0:20:07a love of painting. And from that grew the John Moores Painting Prize.
0:20:07 > 0:20:11My heroes are Cezanne, Van Gogh and Matisse, etc...
0:20:11 > 0:20:14As a child of communist parents, I should have hated him,
0:20:14 > 0:20:17and in fact my mum actually worked for Littlewoods Pools,
0:20:17 > 0:20:19and somehow we couldn't hate a man
0:20:19 > 0:20:23who sold his Rolls-Royce Silver Shadow in an act of solidarity
0:20:23 > 0:20:26for his workers, but kept his chauffeur
0:20:26 > 0:20:30to drive him around in a Mini Metro, because he didn't want to sack him.
0:20:32 > 0:20:36When John Moores founded his prize, in 1957,
0:20:36 > 0:20:38he wrote a letter to the Times which stated that he felt
0:20:38 > 0:20:42the decline in the quality of British art galleries was due to
0:20:42 > 0:20:46"the concentration of arts shows, art criticism and the like
0:20:46 > 0:20:49"being in London." He wanted the biggest,
0:20:49 > 0:20:53best, most inclusive British art prize to be held in Liverpool.
0:20:53 > 0:20:56And to be held here, at the Walker Art Gallery.
0:21:01 > 0:21:04In my first week at Chelsea School of Art,
0:21:04 > 0:21:06we had an art history lecture,
0:21:06 > 0:21:10and the lecturer put up a slide of a Van Gogh painting,
0:21:10 > 0:21:11and a girl in my class said,
0:21:11 > 0:21:15"Oh, I know that, it's in the hall of our flat in Rome."
0:21:15 > 0:21:19And I thought, bloody hell, it's not even in the living room,
0:21:19 > 0:21:21it's in the hall where they hang the coats.
0:21:21 > 0:21:25'Now, obviously, most of us can't live surrounded by Van Goghs.
0:21:25 > 0:21:27'But this was my version of that.
0:21:27 > 0:21:31'It's where I learned to appreciate great art, like the Holbein
0:21:31 > 0:21:35'and the Rembrandt, and also to enjoy the bad stuff,
0:21:35 > 0:21:38'like When Did You Last See Your Father?'
0:21:38 > 0:21:39It's terrible!
0:21:41 > 0:21:44I suppose it's typical of Liverpool that one of the biggest events
0:21:44 > 0:21:46in the social and artistic calendar
0:21:46 > 0:21:48should have been a prize for contemporary art.
0:21:55 > 0:21:59The competition is anonymous and open to anyone.
0:21:59 > 0:22:03Over 2,500 painters sent in their work,
0:22:03 > 0:22:07and these were whittled down by a jury of leading contemporary artists
0:22:07 > 0:22:09and the Royal Academy's Tim Marlow.
0:22:13 > 0:22:15The 50 paintings they've chosen to be exhibited
0:22:15 > 0:22:17are going up on the walls today.
0:22:17 > 0:22:20Now, it's widely believed that the conceptualist mafia,
0:22:20 > 0:22:23with their unmade beds and pickled sharks,
0:22:23 > 0:22:25snuffed out painting years ago,
0:22:25 > 0:22:27but the vitality of the stuff on show here
0:22:27 > 0:22:29makes a mockery of that notion.
0:22:29 > 0:22:33That idea that it's died is a nonsense, it's still resilient.
0:22:33 > 0:22:37I'm not sure it even needs defending any more.
0:22:37 > 0:22:39Tim Marlow's in charge of the hang,
0:22:39 > 0:22:42and, as the artists seem to have painted on every surface
0:22:42 > 0:22:45known to man this year, it's going to be tricky.
0:22:45 > 0:22:49There's a particular problem with this one, painted on a crisp packet.
0:22:49 > 0:22:52It's called 80 Calories. It's fabulous.
0:22:52 > 0:22:55It is. Do you know, I thought it was a vast, epic painting,
0:22:55 > 0:22:58then when you see it in the flesh it's a complete surprise.
0:22:58 > 0:23:00Do you know why it's painted on a crisp packet?
0:23:00 > 0:23:03No! I tell you what though - it's a bastard to hang, this one.
0:23:03 > 0:23:04I know, where are you going to put it?
0:23:04 > 0:23:07'Where else in the world would a painting on a crisp packet
0:23:07 > 0:23:10'hang in the same room as a picture such as this?'
0:23:10 > 0:23:12This is fabulous, lovely.
0:23:12 > 0:23:14Lovely wouldn't be my description. ALEXEI CACKLES
0:23:14 > 0:23:16You see, I see the raw beauty in these things.
0:23:16 > 0:23:18I see this as lovely.
0:23:18 > 0:23:20This must be to do with contemporary conflict,
0:23:20 > 0:23:22with innocent victims of war.
0:23:22 > 0:23:25Do you feel manipulated when you look at this? I do, slightly.
0:23:25 > 0:23:27That's not necessarily a bad thing.
0:23:28 > 0:23:29Whichever of these paintings wins,
0:23:29 > 0:23:33it will join some of Britain's greatest ever works of art
0:23:33 > 0:23:34in the permanent exhibition
0:23:34 > 0:23:37of John Moores first prize winners at the Walker.
0:23:37 > 0:23:41In the art world, a place here is premium real estate.
0:23:41 > 0:23:44The first-ever prize-winner is here,
0:23:44 > 0:23:47Jack Smith's Creation and Crucifixion,
0:23:47 > 0:23:49and Mary Martin's Cross.
0:23:49 > 0:23:51She came joint first with Richard Hamilton,
0:23:51 > 0:23:54but died before getting the prize.
0:23:54 > 0:23:56Peter Doig won, so did Peter Davies,
0:23:56 > 0:23:59with the controversial Superstar ***
0:23:59 > 0:24:04And Sarah Pickstone's 2012 winner is exquisite.
0:24:06 > 0:24:10No less exquisite is Peter Getting Out Of Nick's Pool,
0:24:10 > 0:24:14by David Hockney, which John Moores actually hated.
0:24:14 > 0:24:16Why did this win the first prize?
0:24:16 > 0:24:20After accepting his £1,500 cheque from John Moores,
0:24:20 > 0:24:24Hockney used the money to send his mum and dad on holiday.
0:24:25 > 0:24:28But not all the winners were as nice.
0:24:28 > 0:24:33Roger Hilton, who won in 1963, was a veritable enfant terrible.
0:24:35 > 0:24:37After aiming a high kick at his own painting,
0:24:37 > 0:24:42he said all the other painters in the show were crap, which is harsh,
0:24:42 > 0:24:46considering Bridget Riley and RB Kitaj were amongst the runners-up.
0:24:46 > 0:24:51Then he violently accused Alderman Jack Braddock of wearing a wig!
0:24:51 > 0:24:53Later that night, Braddock died!
0:24:53 > 0:24:56What Hilton didn't know was he'd just offed one of the most
0:24:56 > 0:24:59powerful and connected men in Liverpool,
0:24:59 > 0:25:03and allegedly had to flee the country to escape the heat.
0:25:03 > 0:25:06Now, you don't get that kind of shenanigans at the Venice Biennale!
0:25:07 > 0:25:10I have actually won a John Moores art prize -
0:25:10 > 0:25:13it's an honour I share with Sir Peter Blake.
0:25:14 > 0:25:18That's because John Moores also sponsored the Littlewoods
0:25:18 > 0:25:21Little Woody kids club drawing competition,
0:25:21 > 0:25:25which I won in 1961 - and I got a pencil case.
0:25:25 > 0:25:29That same year, young Peter Blake won the Junior John Moores
0:25:29 > 0:25:32Painting Prize for his Self-Portrait With Badges.
0:25:32 > 0:25:33He got £250.
0:25:33 > 0:25:36- Hello.- Hello.- Nice to meet you.
0:25:36 > 0:25:37And you.
0:25:37 > 0:25:41The painting you won with is very iconic, you know...
0:25:41 > 0:25:44- It's become iconic. - Yes, extraordinary.
0:25:44 > 0:25:47I'm wearing a blue denim suit,
0:25:47 > 0:25:50which wouldn't have been worn in '61,
0:25:50 > 0:25:56it would be very rare. The other thing is I'm wearing trainers.
0:25:56 > 0:26:00Us young artists then wore them because Pollock wore them.
0:26:00 > 0:26:03- Really?- It was iconic because it was so weird.
0:26:04 > 0:26:07Did it feel like a big deal, winning the John Moores?
0:26:07 > 0:26:09Yes, at the time.
0:26:09 > 0:26:14It was just getting into its stride, so '61 was a key year,
0:26:14 > 0:26:16in a way - all the artists then...
0:26:16 > 0:26:21The old boy was around, John Moore was still around, presented it.
0:26:22 > 0:26:25It wasn't just the future hero of pop art
0:26:25 > 0:26:28that the John Moores prize spotted early. That year,
0:26:28 > 0:26:34Leon Kossoff and RB Kitaj came first and second in the main prize.
0:26:34 > 0:26:36And even Lucian Freud won £40.
0:26:36 > 0:26:38A beautiful picture
0:26:38 > 0:26:41of him standing in a room in Paris,
0:26:41 > 0:26:45with his wife Caroline Blackwood in bed, a famous picture,
0:26:45 > 0:26:50and I'm pretty sure it was 40 pounds. If you could imagine that now.
0:26:50 > 0:26:54That £40 for what is considered one of Freud's early period
0:26:54 > 0:27:01masterpieces would have earned you a profit of over £27 million by now.
0:27:01 > 0:27:05The very first time I met The Beatles and had
0:27:05 > 0:27:09a conversation with John Lennon, his first words to me were,
0:27:09 > 0:27:12"You shouldn't have won the John Moores,
0:27:12 > 0:27:14"Stuart Sutcliffe should have got that."
0:27:14 > 0:27:16- Really?- Yes, absolutely!
0:27:16 > 0:27:18Although Sutcliffe never won a prize,
0:27:18 > 0:27:21John Moores bought one of his paintings.
0:27:21 > 0:27:22He used the money to buy a bass guitar,
0:27:22 > 0:27:25and helped form a band called The Beatles.
0:27:27 > 0:27:30So, today's the day the short list of five is being announced,
0:27:30 > 0:27:34and I'm told 49 out of the 50 artists have turned up.
0:27:34 > 0:27:36They are laying on a buffet,
0:27:36 > 0:27:38so that might have something to do with it.
0:27:44 > 0:27:47In my day, painters were a scruffy load of sods.
0:27:47 > 0:27:51These days, everybody looks very elegant, and so are the paintings.
0:27:53 > 0:27:55Which painting is yours?
0:27:55 > 0:27:59The one over there with all the thousands of people in it.
0:27:59 > 0:28:03'Over 60,000 individually drawn people, to be precise.'
0:28:04 > 0:28:07- How long did that take? - About nine months.
0:28:07 > 0:28:09Nine months on one painting.
0:28:09 > 0:28:11Then about 12 months to recover!
0:28:13 > 0:28:16There's more people here than there are artists.
0:28:16 > 0:28:19I also haven't got me glasses on!
0:28:19 > 0:28:22'I love the sense of surprise you get at the John Moores.
0:28:22 > 0:28:25'One amazing image follows another.
0:28:25 > 0:28:28'I found the person behind my favourite painting so far...'
0:28:28 > 0:28:33It's about creating something memorable, and of beauty,
0:28:33 > 0:28:35which is essentially tragic.
0:28:35 > 0:28:39'But after a while, the atmosphere gets tense.
0:28:39 > 0:28:43'What they really want to know is which of them has been short listed
0:28:43 > 0:28:48'down to the final five. And in no particular order they were...'
0:28:48 > 0:28:52- Mandy Payne.- '..For her brutalist urban landscape.'
0:28:54 > 0:29:00- Alessandro Raho.- '..For his enigmatic full-length portrait.'
0:29:03 > 0:29:08- Rose Wylie.- '..For her huge, delirious group of ladies.'
0:29:10 > 0:29:14- Juliette Losq. - '..For an equally epic watercolour.'
0:29:18 > 0:29:19And Rae Hicks.
0:29:21 > 0:29:23'..Who was late.'
0:29:24 > 0:29:27Was that overweening arrogance, or just bad geography?
0:29:27 > 0:29:30I started in Whitstable, this morning.
0:29:30 > 0:29:32Is that a kind of artist thing,
0:29:32 > 0:29:36you started out from Whitstable as a kind of performance art piece?
0:29:36 > 0:29:38That's right, I walked to Liverpool!
0:29:38 > 0:29:40Ha-ha-ha!
0:29:40 > 0:29:41Tell me about the painting.
0:29:41 > 0:29:45It all came out as a kind of fascination with landscape
0:29:45 > 0:29:48manufacture. Everything here is made to look like a prop.
0:29:48 > 0:29:51- You've just kind of invented... - Absolutely, it wasn't done from
0:29:51 > 0:29:55- observation, exactly.- Do you feel there's a beauty contest,
0:29:55 > 0:29:57X-Factor kind of feel to this?
0:29:59 > 0:30:02Um... I've only been on The X Factor once...
0:30:02 > 0:30:03ALEXEI LAUGHS
0:30:03 > 0:30:06You're going to win this. You're going to be the boy.
0:30:08 > 0:30:11'If Rae wins, he'll be the youngest ever winner.
0:30:11 > 0:30:14'His painting, by the way, in the terms of contemporary
0:30:14 > 0:30:19'European art world discourse, is as cutting edge as you can get.
0:30:20 > 0:30:25'So, the five shortlisted prize winners get £2,500 each,
0:30:25 > 0:30:30'and their paintings will now go on to inanimately fight it out
0:30:30 > 0:30:33'for £25,000 first prize money.'
0:30:34 > 0:30:37Juliette Losq has entered a view of a back yard.
0:30:37 > 0:30:39It's an intimate subject,
0:30:39 > 0:30:41but painted on a gigantic scale
0:30:41 > 0:30:43and in watercolour.
0:30:43 > 0:30:46It's an intellectual and technical tour de force.
0:30:46 > 0:30:50She won the Jerwood Drawing Prize in 2005,
0:30:50 > 0:30:53so will she bag another top prize this year?
0:30:53 > 0:30:56Your paper bill must be gigantic!
0:30:56 > 0:30:59It's huge, it's one sheet, the biggest sheet of paper
0:30:59 > 0:31:02I could actually find in one piece.
0:31:02 > 0:31:04Why do you think you work so big?
0:31:04 > 0:31:07It's the idea a watercolour is traditionally something small
0:31:07 > 0:31:11and delicate, and it's portable and like a study. I just wanted
0:31:11 > 0:31:14to say, well, actually, it can be as big as a history painting,
0:31:14 > 0:31:15as big as an oil painting.
0:31:15 > 0:31:18The subject doesn't have to be as grand either.
0:31:18 > 0:31:21- Would you like to win? - I'd very much like to win.
0:31:22 > 0:31:24Are you the best here?
0:31:24 > 0:31:27I'm not, but that doesn't stop me wanting to win.
0:31:28 > 0:31:31'The other shortlistees then got tangled up with the press,
0:31:31 > 0:31:33'but I wanted to catch up with them.
0:31:36 > 0:31:40'I started off in Hastings, home of Alessandro Raho.'
0:31:40 > 0:31:45If you were a betting man, you'd put your money on Alessandro to win it.
0:31:45 > 0:31:49He was a student of Goldsmiths College in that crucial period,
0:31:49 > 0:31:53and he exhibited in the Brilliant! exhibition,
0:31:53 > 0:31:57which was full of young British artists, and gave the world
0:31:57 > 0:31:59the moniker...Young British Artists.
0:31:59 > 0:32:01You could say he's a player.
0:32:08 > 0:32:14- Hello.- Hello, come in.- Thank you. After you. It's your studio.
0:32:14 > 0:32:19- Are you excited about the John Moores?- Really, yep, thrilled.
0:32:19 > 0:32:22There's a few flights of steps here.
0:32:22 > 0:32:25- I'm right at the top in the little studio.- It smells of cloves.
0:32:25 > 0:32:27That's very knowledgeable.
0:32:27 > 0:32:31You're one of the only people to have ever noticed that -
0:32:31 > 0:32:33even painters, it's a trade secret.
0:32:33 > 0:32:37'I get the feeling Alessandro and his young family moved away
0:32:37 > 0:32:41'from the London art scene, so he could practise his trade in peace.
0:32:41 > 0:32:45'His repetition of cool, stark portraits smacks of a painter
0:32:45 > 0:32:48'creating images for posterity to look back on,
0:32:48 > 0:32:51'and painstakingly mastering his craft.'
0:32:51 > 0:32:55People sometimes say to me, why don't you take it up again?
0:32:55 > 0:33:01It would take me five years to get back to the physical skill I had
0:33:01 > 0:33:03when I was 18 or 20 years old.
0:33:03 > 0:33:07- Yeah.- It's a physical activity, it's a craft -
0:33:07 > 0:33:12- that's, in the end, what's thrilling about it.- Yeah.
0:33:12 > 0:33:15I'm trying to make the marks that irritate me the least.
0:33:15 > 0:33:19Often I'll paint these up and they quickly look quite nice,
0:33:19 > 0:33:22sketching them in, but then I find that mark irritates me,
0:33:22 > 0:33:25because it's showy, or it likes its cleverness.
0:33:25 > 0:33:30Oil paint is such a sensitive medium, there's nowhere to hide.
0:33:30 > 0:33:35It'll pick up everything, but you do learn to get used to it.
0:33:36 > 0:33:42There's still some bits on here - I don't know if it's...still there.
0:33:42 > 0:33:46I'm just taking... Can you see those slight lines?
0:33:46 > 0:33:48I'm just starting to...
0:33:48 > 0:33:52- So this is pushing around paint that's on the surface.- Right.
0:33:52 > 0:33:55So that creates feelings that are different to if I had a brush
0:33:55 > 0:34:01- and did this.- Right.- You know, I'm able to modulate it
0:34:01 > 0:34:03while it's on there.
0:34:06 > 0:34:08This surface is meant to entice,
0:34:08 > 0:34:11meant to be seductive as a painted surface,
0:34:11 > 0:34:14it's creamy, very thick paint, actually,
0:34:14 > 0:34:16that I've just kind of pushed down.
0:34:16 > 0:34:18Who's this?
0:34:18 > 0:34:20This is a commission, this is something new.
0:34:20 > 0:34:22I haven't done many commissions.
0:34:22 > 0:34:25'Alessandro proves that the John Moores prize is still
0:34:25 > 0:34:29'a beacon for the very best of British painting.
0:34:29 > 0:34:31'His paintings are masterful,
0:34:31 > 0:34:35'and there's no doubt they'll become more important as they age.'
0:34:36 > 0:34:38You know, I have thought - not to be too morose -
0:34:38 > 0:34:41this would be an interesting room when we're all dead.
0:34:41 > 0:34:44What happens, you know, when you become these ghosts?
0:34:44 > 0:34:46That's how painting exists,
0:34:46 > 0:34:48that's one of the beautiful aspects.
0:34:48 > 0:34:51You look at communities that have gone,
0:34:51 > 0:34:53and cultures that have gone,
0:34:53 > 0:34:55and the paintings are still there.
0:34:59 > 0:35:02'Later, I'm going to meet Mandy Payne and Rose Wylie,
0:35:02 > 0:35:06'but first, I'm off to meet the Chapman Brothers,
0:35:06 > 0:35:08'to accuse them of being despotic.'
0:35:08 > 0:35:13You see, in 1965, none other than Clement Greenberg was
0:35:13 > 0:35:15the chair of the John Moores jury.
0:35:15 > 0:35:20This great American critic could make or break a painter's career
0:35:20 > 0:35:22with a Caesar-like wag of his thumb,
0:35:22 > 0:35:26and his latest cause was colour-field painting.
0:35:26 > 0:35:29So, what sort of painter won, I wonder?
0:35:29 > 0:35:34None other than prominent British colour-fieldist Michael Tyzack,
0:35:34 > 0:35:37who was closely followed by fellow abstract colourist
0:35:37 > 0:35:39Michael Kidner.
0:35:39 > 0:35:44What if there weren't one, but two Clement Greenbergs on the jury?
0:35:44 > 0:35:48Jake and Dinos Chapman, collectively known as the Chapman Brothers,
0:35:48 > 0:35:50are the scourge of the British middle-class.
0:35:50 > 0:35:54Their work is puerile, highly irritating and brilliant.
0:35:54 > 0:35:58I actually paid for two brothers. Where's the other one?
0:35:58 > 0:36:01The other one's gone missing. Doesn't actually exist.
0:36:01 > 0:36:04I should have his face painted on the back of my head.
0:36:06 > 0:36:10'I wanted to confront Jake with an uncanny description
0:36:10 > 0:36:14'of a painting he and his brother short listed for the 2008 prize.'
0:36:15 > 0:36:18Jake, if I could just read one of the descriptions
0:36:18 > 0:36:22of one of the paintings what you chose - Grant Foster, Hero Worship.
0:36:22 > 0:36:26"Painting indicates inhuman and barbaric practices.
0:36:26 > 0:36:29"The characters are both victim and villain,
0:36:29 > 0:36:31"self-portrait and fiction."
0:36:31 > 0:36:34Does that sound like anybody you know?
0:36:34 > 0:36:38- Let me see that. I didn't pick that. - You saying you didn't pick that?
0:36:38 > 0:36:40No, no, I did.
0:36:40 > 0:36:43When you and your brother were on the jury, did you feel
0:36:43 > 0:36:46compelled to pick work like yours?
0:36:46 > 0:36:50Your tendency towards things is going to be governed
0:36:50 > 0:36:52by similarities in ideas.
0:36:52 > 0:36:55So, as a fully paid up pessimist,
0:36:55 > 0:36:58you don't often find yourself gravitating towards things
0:36:58 > 0:36:59that are optimistic.
0:36:59 > 0:37:03You didn't feel compelled as a jury member to be more...
0:37:03 > 0:37:06Even handed? The problem is that the way in which we judge
0:37:06 > 0:37:09works of art is often by whether a child can like it.
0:37:09 > 0:37:12I think Matisse has to be defended from the idea that
0:37:12 > 0:37:15little Tarquin can cut out pieces of tissue and stick them on paper.
0:37:15 > 0:37:18That there's any similarity between the two is absurd.
0:37:18 > 0:37:22It's like saying walnut's good for you because it looks like a brain.
0:37:22 > 0:37:24You know? There's no connection. ALEXEI CHUCKLES
0:37:24 > 0:37:26There's no connection.
0:37:26 > 0:37:30'In a desperate attempt to bring him around to the point of the interview
0:37:30 > 0:37:32'I asked Jake to pick a winner.'
0:37:32 > 0:37:35I don't know, really, what do you think?
0:37:35 > 0:37:36'Typically, he was more interested
0:37:36 > 0:37:39'in the back of the images than the front.'
0:37:39 > 0:37:41- Have you got any preferences? - That one.
0:37:41 > 0:37:43ALEXEI LAUGHS
0:37:43 > 0:37:48- There's always a dark underbelly. - 'Should have known better.'
0:37:51 > 0:37:54'The next stop on my John Moores odyssey was Rose Wylie.'
0:37:56 > 0:37:57Rose!
0:37:57 > 0:37:59'When we set up the interview with her,
0:37:59 > 0:38:04'she decided that she'd like to see me paint rather than paint herself.'
0:38:05 > 0:38:06- Hello.- Hi, Rose.
0:38:06 > 0:38:09I've got you for an art class.
0:38:09 > 0:38:10'After seeing Alessandro,
0:38:10 > 0:38:14'I'd actually like to give it another go.'
0:38:14 > 0:38:17They're not girls' gloves, so they should fit OK.
0:38:17 > 0:38:20I use these to pick up the cat's poo.
0:38:20 > 0:38:23They're very good, and then you throw them away.
0:38:23 > 0:38:25Rose is British painting's Cinderella.
0:38:25 > 0:38:28She has been painting since 1956,
0:38:28 > 0:38:31and is admired by fans such as Germaine Greer.
0:38:31 > 0:38:35For the last 20 years, she's been on the verge of a big prize,
0:38:35 > 0:38:37but never quite got there.
0:38:37 > 0:38:39She's pretty rugged, isn't she?
0:38:40 > 0:38:44'In its own quiet way, Rose's work is pretty rugged.
0:38:44 > 0:38:47'It has to be to withstand the jibes of people like Brian Sewell,
0:38:47 > 0:38:52who called Rose "a mad old bat in second infancy,
0:38:52 > 0:38:55"whose scribbles, scrawls and daubs are deplorable rubbish."
0:38:55 > 0:39:02He doesn't realise the paintings are done with huge difficulty.
0:39:02 > 0:39:04You don't feel annoyed with him?
0:39:04 > 0:39:08- No.- Let's let that dry and talk about one of your pictures.
0:39:08 > 0:39:14Your model was Joe Hart, England footballer and dandruff model?
0:39:14 > 0:39:19It was Joe Hart for quite a long time, four months, six months,
0:39:19 > 0:39:21and then I turned him into a Nazi.
0:39:21 > 0:39:24Do you think your paintings are actually saying something?
0:39:24 > 0:39:28They're saying the picture. They're saying what they look like.
0:39:28 > 0:39:31That's all. There's no politics.
0:39:31 > 0:39:37Not really, no. I quite like the message to be how it looks.
0:39:37 > 0:39:40I think Rose is more radical than that. If you look closely,
0:39:40 > 0:39:44you'll see her paintings satirising the act of painting itself.
0:39:44 > 0:39:46She's a real punk,
0:39:46 > 0:39:50and deserves to be one of the art world's most admired painters.
0:39:50 > 0:39:53And she's helped me paint Kinki Nazi Leg,
0:39:53 > 0:39:56my first painting since art school.
0:39:56 > 0:39:59So, do you think painting is a compulsion?
0:39:59 > 0:40:03I think it probably is. Why do we go on doing it when nothing happens?
0:40:03 > 0:40:05You just keep doing it.
0:40:05 > 0:40:09What making this programme has brought up for me
0:40:09 > 0:40:15is how much I've lost by being what I am, because the way
0:40:15 > 0:40:20you painters are is this wonderful kind of self-contained
0:40:20 > 0:40:22sense of satisfaction.
0:40:22 > 0:40:26'Rose first entered the John Moores Painting Prize in 1990.
0:40:26 > 0:40:30'If she wins, nearly 25 years after her first attempt,
0:40:30 > 0:40:33'she'll be the oldest and most subversive ever winner.
0:40:35 > 0:40:39'I'm beginning to miss painting. But it's never too late to start.
0:40:39 > 0:40:43'Mandy Payne only became a full-time painter in 2013.
0:40:43 > 0:40:45'Her inclusion on the short list
0:40:45 > 0:40:48'is what makes the John Moores so unique.
0:40:48 > 0:40:50'She's new to the game,
0:40:50 > 0:40:53'but her images of Sheffield's Park Hill flats have the power
0:40:53 > 0:40:58'and presence that most artists fail to achieve in a lifetime.'
0:40:58 > 0:41:02So, Mandy, one day people will visit this site as they now visit
0:41:02 > 0:41:08- Giverny for water lilies. - I doubt it, but, yes.
0:41:08 > 0:41:10- Is it celebratory?- I think it is.
0:41:10 > 0:41:15Celebratory of the architecture, the history, memories.
0:41:15 > 0:41:18'Technically, Mandy's paintings are astonishing.
0:41:18 > 0:41:20'Out in her garden shed,
0:41:20 > 0:41:24'she sprays with aerosols onto her concrete canvases.'
0:41:24 > 0:41:26Where did that impulse come from?
0:41:26 > 0:41:30I wanted to use materials integral to the site, so that's why I started
0:41:30 > 0:41:35using concrete. This is the mould I used for Brutal,
0:41:35 > 0:41:38and I think I possibly used one of these old baking trays,
0:41:38 > 0:41:40which have got the little feet on
0:41:40 > 0:41:44which you can use to hang the piece of concrete when it's finished.
0:41:44 > 0:41:47'Mandy works on her images section by section.
0:41:47 > 0:41:50'And, like every streetwise tagger knows,
0:41:50 > 0:41:52'it's all about varying the pressure.'
0:41:54 > 0:41:56You actually have the picture in your head?
0:41:56 > 0:41:57MUFFLED: Yeah, I know what...
0:41:57 > 0:42:00You know what you're doing. I can't hear a word you're saying.
0:42:00 > 0:42:02What, I'm the greatest comedian of all time?
0:42:02 > 0:42:04That's nice of you to say!
0:42:04 > 0:42:06SHE LAUGHS
0:42:06 > 0:42:10There's only been three women have won the prize since 1957.
0:42:10 > 0:42:12The odds are not great then, are they, really?
0:42:12 > 0:42:15Sarah Pickstone was the last one, wasn't she? That was last year.
0:42:15 > 0:42:18Mind you, there are three women in the final.
0:42:18 > 0:42:20I'm going to go to the betting shop
0:42:20 > 0:42:23and wager a sovereign on Mandy Payne!
0:42:25 > 0:42:27OK, that's all the five shortlistees -
0:42:27 > 0:42:30Rae Hicks, Juliette Losq,
0:42:30 > 0:42:34Alessandro Raho, Rose Wylie and Mandy Payne.
0:42:34 > 0:42:36'But who's going to win?
0:42:36 > 0:42:39'And what will winning do for them?
0:42:39 > 0:42:42'I went to the artistic capital of western Europe -
0:42:42 > 0:42:45'Hackney in East London - to ask Peter Doig,
0:42:45 > 0:42:49'who, when he won in 1993, didn't have two pennies to rub together.'
0:42:49 > 0:42:50Bloody...
0:42:52 > 0:42:55This is a beautiful space.
0:42:55 > 0:42:57Not too bad, yeah?
0:42:57 > 0:42:59'When Peter Doig's White Canoe
0:42:59 > 0:43:03'was sold at Sotheby's for £5.73 million in 2007,
0:43:03 > 0:43:06'he entered the super league, but, unassuming as he is,
0:43:06 > 0:43:11'he is unarguably one of the world's greatest living painters.
0:43:11 > 0:43:14'In 1993, he was on the verge of giving up painting
0:43:14 > 0:43:18'when he got a £20,000 reprieve through the post,
0:43:18 > 0:43:21'care of John Moores.'
0:43:21 > 0:43:23I just assumed it was a rejection letter,
0:43:23 > 0:43:28because I had entered a number of times before and never been accepted
0:43:28 > 0:43:30even into the exhibition phase.
0:43:30 > 0:43:33So I just assumed it was a rejection letter.
0:43:33 > 0:43:36But I opened it up, and it was a shock.
0:43:36 > 0:43:41It seems to me that winning the John Moores Painting Prize with Blotter
0:43:41 > 0:43:45means more to Peter Doig than the millions he's got for his paintings.
0:43:45 > 0:43:50To be part of the group of artists that have won the John Moores -
0:43:50 > 0:43:51you knew Bridget Riley had won it,
0:43:51 > 0:43:55Richard Hamilton had won it, you knew Hockney had won it.
0:43:55 > 0:43:59I have the five shortlistees here, and I'd like your opinion.
0:43:59 > 0:44:03You could say it comes from kind of a British tradition of, you know,
0:44:03 > 0:44:06Spencer, Freud.
0:44:06 > 0:44:10This looks quite knowing, in current trends of painting.
0:44:10 > 0:44:15I know this guy, I used to teach him at Goldsmiths years ago. Interesting.
0:44:15 > 0:44:17Don't recognise that austere looking...
0:44:17 > 0:44:20It's actually painted on concrete, as well.
0:44:20 > 0:44:22That to me is a real achievement,
0:44:22 > 0:44:26someone is able to handle scale in a very sophisticated way.
0:44:26 > 0:44:30If you see a Rose Wylie painting, you know it's a Rose Wylie painting,
0:44:30 > 0:44:31and that's special.
0:44:31 > 0:44:34So which do you think would be your choice?
0:44:34 > 0:44:37Well, I'm going to sit on the fence a little bit
0:44:37 > 0:44:39and say I'd like one of these three to win.
0:44:40 > 0:44:43So, today is the day when the winner is announced.
0:44:43 > 0:44:45I'm actually very excited.
0:44:45 > 0:44:48Through making this programme, I've actually become very fond
0:44:48 > 0:44:51of all those who were shortlisted, and this is my last chance to talk
0:44:51 > 0:44:55to them before one of them has their lives changed completely for ever.
0:44:55 > 0:44:57Just a bit.
0:45:01 > 0:45:08This bit is quite stressful, the last bit was nothing to lose.
0:45:08 > 0:45:10It's something that will be on my CV for ever
0:45:10 > 0:45:13and I'm pleased to have got as far as I did.
0:45:13 > 0:45:15I've always put in for it, then you get rejected,
0:45:15 > 0:45:19then you get in and you're one of the prize-winners.
0:45:19 > 0:45:21Totally fine. Quite mellow.
0:45:21 > 0:45:23I'm trying not to focus on it, really,
0:45:23 > 0:45:27- just blank it out of my mind. - Where do you think you are, then?
0:45:27 > 0:45:28Who knows!
0:45:29 > 0:45:33The announcement of the John Moores Painting Prize 2014.
0:45:33 > 0:45:37And that winner is Rose Wylie.
0:45:37 > 0:45:38APPLAUSE AND CHEERING
0:45:39 > 0:45:44Sort of like a proud parent, even though she is a lot older than me.
0:45:50 > 0:45:52Brian Sewell is going to go bat shit.
0:45:52 > 0:45:55- He won't know what to say about it. - So, how do you feel now?
0:45:55 > 0:45:59I feel terrific. You know, it's very unexpected.
0:45:59 > 0:46:01My daughter was quite sure I would win it
0:46:01 > 0:46:03and I was quite sure I would not.
0:46:05 > 0:46:09Well, that's it. I feel weirdly emotional, really.
0:46:09 > 0:46:13I'm thrilled for Rose, but I feel sorry for the other four, in a way.
0:46:13 > 0:46:18It's been interesting. I think being a painter is a wonderful life.
0:46:18 > 0:46:21It does make me want to get my paint out again,
0:46:21 > 0:46:23but, on the other hand, I don't know if I could take the tension.