Turnip Prize

Art.

It can be a bit baffling, can't it?

What is heralded as the next best thing by the establishment, dealers and collectors may seem to the rest of us, like a bit of old rubbish put into a frame or mounted on a plinth.

Works that have made the big money and headlines have also courted controversy and consternation.

Who is to say, really, what is good art?

What may thrill and mesmerise one person may bore the pants off the next, and so on.

Personally I like a good old fashioned oil painting depicting a landscape, maritime scene or even a portrait of the rugged, expressioned face of an anonymous or long forgotten figure from history or who just caught the eye and imagination of the artist .

In recent years I have enjoyed tracking down the sculptures of Anthony Gormley which has taken the family as far south as Wessex, to the suburbs of Gateshead, Tyne and Wear, Greenwich on the Thames and in my local Sainsbury Homebase where they were, some years ago, selling coat pegs designed by the man himself.

I have also developed a fascination for the works of Peter Howson even to the point of getting sweaty palms and guilt pangs in seriously thinking about buying a small original painting from a gallery in Glasgow whilst on holiday in Scotland. I lost my nerve after realising that the purchase price would take up all of the vacation spending money and a bit more. I was not sure, on reflection, where I would actually display any acquisition as would be the right thing to do without being always on edge in case it got damaged, faded away in sunlight or spoiled by an enthusiastic, regular application of furniture polish.

I settled in the end for a copy of an album sleeve of the Beautiful South "Quench" featuring Howson's graphically striking character in a defensive fighting stance.

Well, it was announced today that the City of Hull, my home town, is to host the Turner Prize for art in 2017, also the year in which Hull celebrates its role as UK City of Culture.

In previous years and locations of the Prize there have been weird and wonderful entries and eventual winners including a stained and dishevelled bed with lots of accompanying garbage and detritus and even formaldehyde preserved creatures of field and sea.

Whatever the actual subjects and interpretations of what passes as art will be met with great expectation and excitement by the citizens of Hull upon the arrival of the prestigious competition in two years time.

I might just wander down and have a look.