New work from Mark Wallinger in campaign against funding cuts
A new work by Turner Prize-winning artist Mark Wallinger is released today as part of a campaign supported by over 100 leading British artists against the government's proposed funding cuts of the arts.
Mark Wallinger's work shows a copy of Turner's masterpiece, The Fighting Temeraire, 1839 by Joseph Mallord William Turner, in the collection of the National Gallery in London. A slash in the painting carries a notice "25% cut" and underneath the work a caption reads: "if 25% were slashed from arts funding the loss would be immeasurable."
Turner referred to The Fighting Temeraire as "his darling", refusing to ever sell it until he finally donated it to the National Gallery. When the nation was asked by the BBC to nominate the greatest painting on show in the UK's museums and galleries it came first with 25% of the votes.
The title of Mark Wallinger's new work is "Reckless". He explains: "I describe the cuts as a reckless adventure. In fact temeraire means reckless in French and by removing the obsolete ship from the scene I am rendering the painting wreckless."
Artists join campaign against funding cuts
Over a hundred leading artists including David Hockney, Anthony Caro, Damien Hirst, Howard Hodgkin, Anish Kapoor, Richard Hamilton, Antony Gormley and Tracey Emin have joined the campaign to fight against the proposed 25% cuts in government funding of the arts.
Each week the work of a different artist, created in response to the campaign, will be released. The Whitworth Art Gallery will be presenting the artists' work here on our site, in support of this campaign. The first work is a video by artist David Shrigley:
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