The favourite to win this year´s Turner talks about the quest for belonging in her work - and being the oldest artist ever shortlistedI n a tranquil corner of Preston, Lancashire, there is a modest Georgian terrace with a handsome park below it and a river - the Ribble - running alongside it. It is here that the artist Lubaina Himid has lived for more than 20 years. She is, at 63, being celebrated as the oldest Turner prize nominee since the prize, in a belatedly sensible move, changed its rules - the cut-off point used to be 50. But age, it will turn out, is the least interesting thing about Himid - whose work has originality, political drive and youthful verve. And besides, in a year of cosmopolitan Turner prize nominees, with artists with roots in Palestine, Germany and the Caribbean, she is not the only artist over 50. What is far more significant is that she has been, art critics seem to agree, inexplicably undervalued throughout her career. Now, for what it is worth, she is also the bookies´ favourite to win. It would seem that her moment has - at last - come and I can´t wait to meet her, having fallen in love with the work I have already seen.On either side of the front path, topiaried box shapes stand guard, leading to a pale yellow front door. This is a long way from Zanzibar, I reflect, where she was born. I ring the bell and Himid appears at the front door with a lovely, welcoming smile: mannishly dressed with chic specs and with just the tiniest touch of Mrs Tiggy Winkle about the intensity of her stance, although her clothes are cooler: caramel coloured brogues, gorgeous blue shirt, smart trousers. She is professor of contemporary art at the University of Central Lancashire and, while making tea, explains how much she loves her job, learning something new, every day, from her students - living proof that teaching need not inhibit creativity. She is a Preston devotee, too, singing the praises of its art gallery and green spaces, although, at one poin ...
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