Starting in 2018, and for the next ten years, the Government Art Collection, in partnership with Outset, has been selecting outstanding British artists to create original print works for the Collection to display around the world. Inspiration for the TenTen project came from an initiative by the Foundation for Arts and Preservation in Embassies; through the Foundation, some of America’s most celebrated and accomplished artists have created prints for display in U.S. embassies.
RACHEL WHITEREAD DBE, 2022
The 2022 The Robson Orr TenTen Award, 2022 was awarded to Rachel Whiteread DBE. Whiteread’s Untitled (Bubble) reflects the microscopic form of COVID-19 itself and a time during the height of the pandemic when physical contact and communication became reduced to those within one’s ‘bubble’.
LUBAINA HIMID CBE, 2021
The 2021 The Robson Orr TenTen Award was awarded to Lubaina Himid CBE. Himid’s Old Boat, New Weather features the traditional elements of painted seascapes; the harbour, the impending storm and the boat itself are reinvented in Lubaina Himid’s screen print through archive photographic imagery and woven colour.
YINKA SHONIBARE CBE, 2020
The third commission of The Robson Orr TenTen Award was awarded to Yinka Shonibare CBE, who created the wonderfully complex ‘Hibiscus and the Rose’, a woodcut print featuring Shonibare’s signature use of Dutch wax fabrics and talks of his childhood in both the UK and Nigeria.
TACITA DEAN CBE RA, 2019
The 2019 edition was created by renowned artist Tacita Dean CBE RA. A self-declared collector of clouds, Tacita Dean’s Foreign Policy (screenprint edition) reflects an ongoing series of works and a very specific moment in time. The screenprint is an interpretation of a similarly titled large-scale work drawn in chalk on the blackboard from 2016, currently on loan by the artist to Sir Simon McDonald, Permanent Under-Secretary for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs and Head of HM Diplomatic Service.
HURVIN ANDERSON, 2018
The first commission was awarded to Hurvin Anderson, who worked with The Print Studio’s Kip Gresham and Alan Grabham to replicate sourced and saved fabrics and wallpapers. The thirteen base colours in the print are built up from 15 stencils over 21 layers. The rich use of pattern to flatten and confuse the space references the techniques of Henri Matisse.