What's Going On With the Hunting Prize in Texas?

An artist recently sent me an email about the Hunting Prize in Texas.  If you are not familiar with Hunting, it is an art competition that awards $50,000 to one winning Texas artist annually. It's a big deal.

If you read the guidelines all artists must be a Texas resident, and no computer generated work is accepted.


Rules Cited:

Participants must be a legal resident of Texas.

The 2011 art prize is limited to paintings and drawings. No printmaking, photography, collage, assemblage, sculpture, relief, found object or computer-generated works will be accepted for this competition.

http://www.huntingartprize.com/terms-conditions/


But... An Artist that is not from Texas made it in to the pool, and so did an artist that does computer generated work.

Runcie Tatnall is a Miami Based Artist.   http://www.runcie.com/exhibition_info.htm

William Betts uses a computer program to make his work.  http://www.thatcherprojects.com/exhibition_01.cfm?exh=422

[ William Betts describes his process as follows:

"Having spent several years working professionally in the software business, I draw on a deep understanding of technology to develop new techniques of making paintings that reinvigorate the traditional craft and allow me to create paintings that could not be made until very recently. For this series of paintings based on video surveillance images, I used advanced computer controlled linear motion technology and a proprietary software system of my design to precisely apply thousands of drips of paint. The individual drips of high gloss acrylic paint catch the light and give each drip its own dimensionality and further mimic video. I developed a color palette based on RGB additive component video to create ‘black and white’ images using only colored paint. A typical painting has between 30,000 and 40,000 individually applied drips of paint." ]



So the questions are:

Does this bother anyone that the guidelines were not met by these two artists?

Why were two artists that do not meet the criteria let into the artists pool?

Wouldn't it have been better for Texas Artists, that meet all the criteria, to be chosen?

If this very high profile competition does not follow criteria, then who else doesn't?

Why do they even have criteria?

Is this just another example of the political game of art?

Do you care...

Let me know what you think!