Shortlist for 2017 Turner Prize showcases older artists

Our daily round-up of news from the art world

Turner Prize shortlist announced | The Tate has announced the shortlist for this year’s Turner Prize, the first edition of the award without an upper age limit since 1991. The 2017 nominees include Hurvin Anderson and Lubaina Himid, two artists who would have been ineligible for the prize in previous years, as well as multimedia artists Andrea Büttner and Rosalind Nashashibi. Reactions to the shortlist have so far been mixed. While some have hailed the prize’s removal of age criteria, others including Sunday Times critic Waldemar Januszczak have criticised the Tate for overturning Nicholas Serota’s dictum that it should not be a ‘lifetime achievement award’. An exhibition of work by shortlisted artists will go on display at Hull’s Ferens Art Gallery in September. The winner will be announced at a televised ceremony in December.

Police say terrorist suspect planned to target art collective | A prominent Berlin art collective was among a series of targets drawn up by a German army officer arrested on suspicion of planning terrorist attacks, reports Tagesspiegel (German language article, via ArtNet News). The suspect, a 28-year-old Bundeswehr lieutenant believed to have links to the far right, had reportedly drawn up a hit list that included the Zentrum fur politische Schönheit (ZPS) collective, who are well known in Germany for their politically charged art.

Alex Katz painting stolen from Munich gallery | Police in Munich are investigating the theft of Alex Katz’s 1967 painting Box Flower 1, which was stolen from the city’s Galerie Klüser earlier this year. The theft is believed to have taken place during opening hours between 22 and 23 February. According to Abendzeitung (German language article, via Artforum), an intern noticed that the work was missing, but did not presume it had been stolen. Police are asking the public for information that may lead to its recovery.

Dan Byers appointed director of Harvard’s Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts | Curator Dan Byers has been named as the next director of Harvard’s Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts. Carpenter, who has been senior curator at Boston’s Institute of Contemporary Art since 2014, replaces James Voorhies, who is leaving to take up a post at the California College of the Arts in Oakland.