The twenty-third Turner Prize was awarded to the amiable Mark Wallinger on Monday evening, the ceremony taking place outside London for the first time – at Tate Liverpool, on Merseyside, to be precise.

To use the terminology of art, the event was Ironically Postmodern with Surreal overtones. Former winner Grayson Perry attended in a baby doll dress in Everton Blue. The prize was awarded by Dennis Hopper, whom the Controller Of All Tates, Nicholas Serota, described as “a legendary actor, director and biker”. It had been rumoured that Hopper was to ride into Tate Liverpool on a Harley-Davidson, but in the event he just walked rather meekly on to stage, confessing in an actorly way to the bewilderment of “a farm boy from Dodge City” at having been invited to present “the most prestigious prize in the whole art world”.

The principal leitmotif of the pre-award speeches involved prominent members of the London art world standing up and saying in public how much they loved and admired Liverpool. Nicholas Serota made the point that the Turner Prize had been brought to Liverpool to celebrate the city’s status as European Capital of Culture in 2008. He had an unfortunate way, however, of making the word “capital” sound exactly as if it really meant “desert”.

Serota expressed the deepest gratitude imaginable to Dennis Hopper for having come all the way to Liverpool from “his home in Los Angeles”, and noted the film star’s utterly remarkable dedication to art – so remarkable, in fact, that Hopper had spent two whole days in the city. No one knew for sure, but there was speculation that this astonishing feat of endurance might establish a new record for a resident of Los Angeles, perhaps even for an American, full stop. The Americans who own Liverpool Football...

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