Turner Prize awarded to all four shortlisted artists

Our daily round-up of news from the art world 

Turner Prize awarded to all four shortlisted artists | The 2019 Turner Prize has been awarded to all four of the artists shortlisted – a first in the prize’s history. Lawrence Abu Hamdan, Helen Cammock, Oscar Murillo, and Tai Shani collectively received the award at a ceremony in Margate on Tuesday evening. The nominees, who had never met before being shortlisted, wrote to the jury asking to be considered as a newly formed collective: ‘At this time of political crisis in Britain and much of the world, when there is already so much that divides and isolates people and communities, we feel strongly motivated to use the occasion of the prize to make a collective statement in the name of commonality, multiplicity and solidarity – in art as in society.’ ‘It did make the judging session a little shorter,’ commented Alex Farquharson, director of Tate Britain and chair of the prize jury. The quartet, whose works are currently on display at Turner Contemporary in Margate, will split the £40,000 cash prize evenly.

Christopher Breward appointed director of National Museums Scotland | The National Museums Scotland group, which operates four museums in Edinburgh, East Lothian and East Kilbride, has announced Christopher Breward as its new director. Breward, who will succeed Gordon Rintoul, is currently director of collection and research at the National Galleries of Scotland and, prior to this, worked as the head of research at the Victoria & Albert Museum in London. He will take up his position at National Museums Scotland in April 2020.

Stephen Garrett (1922–2019) | Stephen Garrett, the first director after J. Paul Getty of the Getty Museum, has died at the age of 96. Born in the Surrey village of Ashtead, Garrett studied architecture at the University of Cambridge before serving in the British Royal Navy during the First World War. After the war, Garrett started his own architectural practice and later served as the consultant architect for the Getty Villa, which opened in 1974. Shortly after, Garrett was appointed deputy director of the museum and, after J. Paul Getty died in 1976, he became director, working there until 1984, when he departed for the Long Beach Museum of Art.