Liverpool businessman
John Moores, aside from his work with the
Littlewoods retail and football
betting company, was a keen amateur painter. Out of frustration with the difficulty he had in finding an audience for his paintings, he financed an exhibition to which other artists in a similar situation could send their work, and compete to win prize money. The first such exhibition was held in 1957, with the winning entry becoming the property of Liverpool's
Walker Art Gallery. In the prize's early years, the winning painting was not always acquired by the gallery, but this has been done consistently since 1978. Up until 1963, the prize exhibitions also included sculpture, since which time it has only allowed paintings. 2002's winner, "Super Star Fucker - Andy Warhol Text Painting" by
Peter Davies, was noted by critic
Adrian Searle as being "undoubtedly the first painting in 'the Moores' ever to contain the f-word". That same year saw the introduction of the Visitors' Choice Prize, in which exhibition attendees are able to vote for their favourite work. 2004's exhibition was described by Laura Gascoigne in
The Spectator as being "dominated by three current trends: obsessive pattern-making, surreal 'bedroom' painting and cheerless realism". That year's prize was won by
Alexis Harding. The John Moores Painting Prize China was launched in 2010 in Shanghai. Alongside the British exhibition, five winners from the Chinese competition were shown at the Walker Art Gallery. This has become a regular feature of the UK prize exhibition. This made her the first female winner of the prize since Lisa Milroy over thirty years earlier. Pickstone's winning painting,
Stevie Smith and the Willow, was based on an illustration accompanying
Smith's 1957 poem "
Not Waving But Drowning". Pickstone said the painting's depiction of a girl bathing under a willow tree "might represent some kind of everywoman - an artist or mother or child", and while the poem is "very dark", she wanted to "make something more joyous out of the poem" with her painting. Judge for the prize,
Fiona Banner, said of the work: "It's [...] a painting of one artist reflected through another, a meeting of literary and pictorial minds". 2014's prize recipient,
Rose Wylie, was cited by
The Art Newspaper as an example of how the prize can "supercharge" the careers of its winners. In the three years after she won at the age of 80, she was awarded the
Order of the British Empire and joined the
David Zwirner Gallery. A prize for artists in their final year of an art education program, or within two years of graduating, was introduced in 2020, the Emerging Artist Prize.
Kathryn Maple won the 2021 prize with her work
The Common. Judge Michelle Williams Gamaker commented that the painting "struck a chord during the judging [...] perhaps because it depicts the very thing we are currently unable to share" due to
COVID restrictions, and that it "embodies the deeply social nature of humans". Maple subsequently presented a solo exhibition at the Walker Art Gallery. She is only the second of the prize's winners to do so, after 2019's winner
Jacqui Hallum.
The Common is on permanent display at the gallery. Maple told
The Guardian, "You always hope your work will get into a national collection [...] so you can return to see it when you're 80 with your friends".
Graham Crowley won first prize in 2023, having entered 10 times since 1976. He was previously shortlisted twice, and has served on the prize's judging panel.'' == First prize winners ==