With just hours to go until tonight’s Turner prize ceremony, the prize is already won, at least according to bookmakers – by the only man on the shortlist.
William Hill has so far taken over 300 bets worth around £10,000 on the prize this year, 60% of which were placed on Mark Leckey, making the film-maker even-money favourite to walk away with the award.
Leckey’s Industrial Light and Magic exhibition, which combines film, performance and sculpture, has divided critics. Michael Glover of the Independent found Leckey’s work possessing “a pleasing, reckless and no-holds-barred verve”, while the Guardian’s Adrian Searle was less impressed, accusing Leckey of “falling for the obvious far too often”.
The prize, worth £25,000 and awarded to an artist under the age of 50, has attracted little of the controversy it usually generates, alongside poor reviews this year. But the Tate press office were keen to point out that 60,000 visitors have passed through the doors of Tate Britain so far to see the work of the four nominees – double that of the equivalent period last year, when the exhibition was hosted at Tate Liverpool, and only slightly under the 70,000 mark recorded in recent years.
