From a Back Street, He Took On the Art World and Won. Can the Turner Prize Bring a New Victory for Toby Webster and His Gang?
The Herald › December 04, 2004
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Summary
When it comes to the world of art, says Toby Webster, size isn't everything. And he should know. We are sitting in a hotel in Glasgow just across the road from Webster's gallery, The Modern Institute. Just across the road, yet a world away. "Institute" is rather a grand word for such a modest domicile: located on a slightly scuzzy corner of Glasgow's city centre, it is a gallery that even estate agents might baulk at describing as compact and bijou. A cramped, L- shaped room (with office), it is anything but a statement of masculinity, creative or otherwise.
Webster could move the gallery. Indeed, he admits that at some point in the future he probably will. But don't expect anything grander. "At the moment I'm imagining something similar," he says. "I don't really want it to be bigger. I just want it to be more efficient. I really don't think bigger means better."See the full content of this document
Extract
From a Back Street, He Took On the Art World and Won. Can the Turner Prize Bring a New Victory for Toby Webster and His Gang?
Maybe: but then again, maybe not. He might operate in a small space, but increasingly these days Webster and the gallery he runs have a big reputation - one that appears to be growing by the day. On Monday Jeremy Deller, one of the artists represented by the Modern Institute, will learn if he has won this year's Turner Prize, which amounts to a cheque for (pounds) 40,000 plus attendant media hysteria. If he does, Webster will be able to say he represents both a Turner winner and a Beck's Futures winner (Toby Paterson scooped that particular art prize two years ago) alongside a host of other internationally renowned artists (including Jim Lambie, Martin Boyce and Simon Starling) and exciting new voices.
As for Webster himself, last month he was named the 70th most powerful person in the art world by the industry magazine Art Review, putting him ahead of such gran...See the full content of this document
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