One Love: The Football Art Prize
David James launches
One Love: The Football Art Prize
The Lowry's open art competition has attracted almost 900 entries from both professional and amateur artists. These were whittled down to approximately 200 works for the second round of judging. They were very impressed with the quality and diversity of all works received – from the comic to the conceptual, the poignant to the everyday.
The prize winners, and the 100 exhibitors have been selected by an esteemed panel of judges drawn from the art and football world. Chaired by critic Sacha Craddock, the panel includes influential artist Mark Wallinger, Portsmouth goalkeeper and keen artist David James, Lindsay Brooks head of galleries at The Lowry, James Lingwood curator of Artangel, and Former Director General of the BBC, Greg Dyke.
 
Prize money of £25,000 will be awarded to five artists at the beginning of the exhibition and first prize will be £15,000, the winners will be announced at the beginning of the exhibition.
Background
In 1953 the Football Association marked its 90th anniversary with a competition and exhibition called ‘Football and the Fine Arts’. With the support of the Arts Council the aim was to “convey something of the rich and exciting opportunities that football can offer the artist.”
From 1,710 entries from artists all over the UK, the judging panel, which included the then Directors of the Tate Gallery and the National Gallery, selected 150 works for inclusion in the final exhibition. They also awarded a number of prizes. The first prize was awarded to LS Lowry for Going to the Match.
Widely regarded as the best known football painting of the twentieth century, Going to the Match shows Burnden Park, then home ground of Bolton Wanderers. It was a few miles from Lowry’s home in Pendlebury so he could walk there and watch Bolton, who won the cup final in 1953, play.
Going to the Match was purchased by the PFA in 1999 for an unprecedented £1.7 million and is now on loan to The Lowry where it is a firm favourite with the thousands of visitors who travel to see it.
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