People Features

The St Ives School dominates Cornwall’s artistic heritage but the late 19th century figurative painters of the Newlyn School preceded it. Williams and Shaw are unashamedly figurative artists, both adopting elements of traditional studio practice but very much exploring contemporary issues.

Nicholas Charles Williams, whose studio is a former lifeboat station on the North coast of Cornwall, is renowned for his large-scale symbolist works using direct observational drawing.

‘Compassion Postponed’ Nicholas Charles Williams

His monumental triptych, Desideratum, drew large crowds earlier this year when it went on display at Liverpool Cathedral for the opening of the European Capital of Culture. It was described by Ian Dejardin, director of the Dulwich Picture Gallery, as “visually and intellectually gripping."

Williams’ nominated painting Compassion Postponed is a foreboding, enigmatic work depicting a leather coat moving in suspension over a blue glove lying beneath. The piece comes from the artist’s current series examining the fluidity of compassion in contemporary society and consequences of its demise.

Tim Shaw is currently artist in residence at the Kenneth Armitage Fellowship in London and his huge sculpture of a bull’s head recently went on display outside the Royal Opera House to commemorate the opera 'The Minotaur' by Sir Harrison Birtwistle.

Shaw’s shortlisted work Tank on Fire references a newspaper photograph published in 2005 of a petrol bomb attack on a British tank in Basra, Iraq.

Votes from the public, cast at the exhibition and online, will be counted when voting closes 12:00 noon on 3 September. The winner will be announced at an awards dinner that evening by Lauren Leverne, presenter BBC2’s Culture Show.

The Threadneedle Figurative Prize is being held at the Mall Galleries in London.

An additional award, the £10,000 FBA Selectors’ Choice Prize, makes it the biggest single prize for the visual arts in the UK and the only one decided by public vote.