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School of Art

Pauline McLean | 15:58 UK time, Tuesday, 8 December 2009

richard_wright_work226.jpgWell done Richard Wright - as yet another artist based in Scotland wins the Turner Prize.

He follows in an illustrious line of Scotland-based winners - from Douglas Gordon back in 1996 to Martin Creed in 2001 and Simon Starling in 2005.

And winners aside, Scotland punches way above its weight in terms of nominees.

Glasgow School of Art was quick to point out that they've produced 30 per cent of the prize's nominees since 2005, including Lucy Skaer, who made this year's shortlist.

Both she and Wright are also graduates of the school's Master of Fine Art Programme - which has also helped shape Claire Barclay, Rosalind Nashashibi and Martin Boyce, who recently represented Scotland at the Venice Biennale.

The course is one of only a handful in the UK to offer a two-year postgraduate course in fine art - and that combined with artists staying on in the city after they've completed it, seems to be making a huge difference.

According to Professor Seona Reid, GSA's director, Wright's win is testament not just to the art school but to the strength of Glasgow's thriving contemporary arts scene and the city's reputation as one of Europe's leading centres for the visual arts.

Of course not everyone agrees with the choice.

Wright's delicate gold leaf decoration - temporarily crafted onto walls in interesting spaces only to be painted over afterwards - may have won over the judges but art critic Duncan MacMillan - author of Scottish Art 1460-2000 said in a recent review of the Turner Prize exhibition that he found Wright's contribution "mildly decorative" but lost in the vast gallery space.

Wright's assertion that his work "distorts our perception of an architectural space" was dismissed as a "meaningless cliche".

And it would be unfair to assume that Glasgow is the only artistic hub.

Thanks to the Ingleby gallery - which staged Wright's most recent exhibition - and both Doggerfisher and the Fruitmarket gallery, which have championed artists like Lucy Skaer, Edinburgh's reputation as a centre for contemporary art is also firmly on track.

And it's there Richard Wright and Martin Creed will make their next work - commissioned with Expo money for the 2010 Edinburgh Art Festival.

Creed will create a piece around the iconic Scotsman stairs (although not a recreation of the Lights Going On and Off, as you can see that there most evenings anyway).

Wright meanwhile will focus on two different stairwells - in the towers of the Dean Gallery.

If it's purchased, it will become his first permanent artwork here in Scotland.

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