Latest Channel 4 News:
Fast-track nuclear plants unveiled
Pakistan suicide bomber kills three
Sex abuse by women reports on rise
Two killed after undersea tremors
Royals set for Canadian fleet visit

Tomma Abts wins Turner Prize

Updated on 04 December 2006

By Channel 4 News

Nicholas Glass speaks to the winner of this year's Turner Prize, Tomma Abts, live on Channel 4 News.


Turner Prize photo (credit: Turner Prize)

Watch the report

It's been announced that abstract painter Tomma Abts has won the Turner Prize.

It's only the third time a woman has won in its twenty two year history. Abts's work is deliberately modest - paintings on canvas always nineteen inches by fifteen.

The German born artist - on collecting the twenty five thousand pound prize - said she now felt part of the British art scene.

Tomma Abts profile

German- born Tomma Abts is nominated for her solo exhibitions at the Kunsthalle Basel contemporary art institution, in Switzerland, and the private greengrassi gallery in London.

Working consistently within the small portrait frame of 48x38cm, Abts' art is characterised by abstract geometric shapes and numerous layers of paint, repetitively worked at to achieve a depth in her work that is both physically and expressively driven.

Such tensions are the essence of her paintings which are regarded as struggling between illusion and reality and the artist enjoys the uncertainty that these responses bring.

"I work inside- out, so to say, and the shapes are almost negative shapes," she says.

"I start with nothing really, I make no sketches before I start the painting, I work directly onto the canvas."

Related links
Turner Prize nominee profiles
Turner Prize gallery
Official website: Turner Prize 2006

Send this article by email


Watch the Latest Channel 4 News

Watch Channel 4 News when you want

Latest World news

More News blogs

View RSS feed

Afghan opinion poll

Soldier (Credit: Reuters)

Exclusive poll finds 73 per cent want troops brought home.

Blow to Afghan plan

Afghanistan

Do latest Afghanistan deaths scupper withdrawal plans?

The 'Wonga' saga

Simon Mann

Simon Mann: exclusive interviews, trial reports and his pardon.

Ruined civilisation

Peru

Destruction of the ancient Nazca civilisation in Peru.

Franco campaign

Franco's tomb

A man who built Franco's tomb wants him to be exhumed.

Twittering on

Start following Channel 4 News on Twitter today.

Click to launch.

Snowmail

Most watched

Most watched

Find out what's getting people clicking online this week.




Channel 4 © 2009. Channel 4 is not responsible for the content of external websites.