Turner Prize
Encyclopedia
J. M. W. Turner
Joseph Mallord William Turner RA was an English Romantic landscape painter, watercolourist and printmaker. Turner was considered a controversial figure in his day, but is now regarded as the artist who elevated landscape painting to an eminence rivalling history painting...
, is an annual prize presented to a British visual artist under the age of 50. Awarding the prize is organised by the Tate
Tate
-Places:*Tate, Georgia, a town in the United States*Tate County, Mississippi, a county in the United States*Táté, the Hungarian name for Totoi village, Sântimbru Commune, Alba County, Romania*Tate, Filipino word for States...
gallery and staged at Tate Britain
Tate Britain
Tate Britain is an art gallery situated on Millbank in London, and part of the Tate gallery network in Britain, with Tate Modern, Tate Liverpool and Tate St Ives. It is the oldest gallery in the network, opening in 1897. It houses a substantial collection of the works of J. M. W. Turner.-History:It...
. Since its beginnings in 1984 it has become the United Kingdom's most publicised art
Art
Art is the product or process of deliberately arranging items in a way that influences and affects one or more of the senses, emotions, and intellect....
award. Although it represents all media, and painters have also won the prize, it has become associated primarily with conceptual art
Conceptual art
Conceptual art is art in which the concept or idea involved in the work take precedence over traditional aesthetic and material concerns. Many of the works, sometimes called installations, of the artist Sol LeWitt may be constructed by anyone simply by following a set of written instructions...
.
As of 2004, the monetary award was established at £40,000. There have been different sponsors, including Channel 4
Channel 4
Channel 4 is a British public-service television broadcaster which began working on 2 November 1982. Although largely commercially self-funded, it is ultimately publicly owned; originally a subsidiary of the Independent Broadcasting Authority , the station is now owned and operated by the Channel...
television and Gordon's Gin
Gordon's Gin
Gordon's is a brand of London Dry gin produced in the United Kingdom and under licence in New Zealand, Canada and several other former British territories. The top markets for Gordon's are the UK, US, Greece and Africa...
. The prize is awarded by a distinguished celebrity: in 2006 this was Yoko Ono
Yoko Ono
is a Japanese artist, musician, author and peace activist, known for her work in avant-garde art, music and filmmaking as well as her marriage to John Lennon...
.
It is a controversial event, mainly for the exhibits, such as "The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living", a shark in formaldehyde by Damien Hirst
Damien Hirst
Damien Steven Hirst is an English artist, entrepreneur and art collector. He is the most prominent member of the group known as the Young British Artists , who dominated the art scene in Britain during the 1990s. He is internationally renowned, and is reportedly Britain's richest living artist,...
and "My Bed", a dishevelled bed by Tracey Emin
Tracey Emin
Tracey Karima Emin RA is a British artist of English and Turkish Cypriot origin. She is part of the group known as Britartists or YBAs ....
. Controversy has also come from other directions, including a Culture Minister (Kim Howells
Kim Howells
Kim Scott Howells is a British Labour Party politician, who was the Member of Parliament for Pontypridd from 1989 to 2010, and held a number of ministerial positions within the Government.-Biography:...
) criticising exhibits, a guest of honour (Madonna
Madonna (entertainer)
Madonna is an American singer-songwriter, actress and entrepreneur. Born in Bay City, Michigan, she moved to New York City in 1977 to pursue a career in modern dance. After performing in the music groups Breakfast Club and Emmy, she released her debut album in 1983...
) swearing, a prize judge (Lynn Barber
Lynn Barber
Lynn Barber is a British journalist, who writes for The Sunday Times.-Early life:Barber attended Lady Eleanor Holles School...
) writing in the press, and a speech by Sir Nicholas Serota
Nicholas Serota
Sir Nicholas Andrew Serota is a British art curator. Serota was director of the Whitechapel Gallery, London, and The Museum of Modern Art, Oxford, before becoming director of the Tate, the United Kingdom's national gallery of modern and British art in 1988. He was awarded a knighthood in 1999. He...
(about the purchase of a trustee's work
The Upper Room (paintings)
The Upper Room is an installation of 13 paintings of rhesus macaque monkeys by English artist Chris Ofili in a specially-designed room. It was bought by the Tate gallery in 2005 from the Victoria Miro Gallery and was the cause of a media furore after a campaign initiated by the Stuckist art group...
).
The event has also regularly attracted demonstrations, notably the K Foundation
K Foundation
The K Foundation was an art foundation set up by Bill Drummond and Jimmy Cauty in 1993, following their 'retirement' from the music industry. The Foundation served as an artistic outlet for the duo's post-retirement KLF income...
and the Stuckists
Stuckist demonstrations
Stuckist demonstrations since 2000 have been a key part of the Stuckist art group's activities and have succeeded in giving them a high profile both in Britain and abroad...
, as well as alternative prizes to assert different artistic values.
Background
Each year after the announcement of the four nominees and during the build-up to the announcement of the winner, the Prize receives intense attention from the media. Much of this attention is critical and the question is often asked, "is this art?" The artists usually work in "innovative" media, including video artVideo art
Video art is a type of art which relies on moving pictures and comprises video and/or audio data. . Video art came into existence during the 1960s and 1970s, is still widely practiced and has given rise to the widespread use of video installations...
, installation art
Installation art
Installation art describes an artistic genre of three-dimensional works that are often site-specific and designed to transform the perception of a space. Generally, the term is applied to interior spaces, whereas exterior interventions are often called Land art; however, the boundaries between...
and unconventional sculpture
Sculpture
Sculpture is three-dimensional artwork created by shaping or combining hard materials—typically stone such as marble—or metal, glass, or wood. Softer materials can also be used, such as clay, textiles, plastics, polymers and softer metals...
, though painter
Painting
Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a surface . The application of the medium is commonly applied to the base with a brush but other objects can be used. In art, the term painting describes both the act and the result of the action. However, painting is...
s have also won.
Artists are chosen based upon a showing of their work which they have staged in the preceding year. Nominations for the prize are invited from the public, although this was widely considered to have negligible effect — a suspicion confirmed in 2006 by Lynn Barber
Lynn Barber
Lynn Barber is a British journalist, who writes for The Sunday Times.-Early life:Barber attended Lady Eleanor Holles School...
, one of the judges. Typically, there is a three-week period in May for public nominations to be received; the short-list (which since 1991 has been of four artists) is announced in July; a show of the nominees' work opens at Tate Britain in late October; and the prize itself is announced at the beginning of December. The show stays open till January. The prize is officially not judged on the show at the Tate, however, but on the earlier show for which the artist was nominated.
The exhibition and prize rely on commercial sponsorship. By 1987, money for the was provided by Drexel Burnham Lambert
Drexel Burnham Lambert
Drexel Burnham Lambert was a major Wall Street investment banking firm, which first rose to prominence and then was forced into bankruptcy in February 1990 by its involvement in illegal activities in the junk bond market, driven by Drexel employee Michael Milken. At its height, it was the...
; its withdrawal after its demise led to the cancellation of the prize for 1990. Channel 4, an independent television channel, stepped in for 1991, doubled the prize money to £20,000, and supported the event with documentaries and live broadcasts of the prize-giving. In 2004, they were replaced as sponsors by Gordon's gin
Gordon's Gin
Gordon's is a brand of London Dry gin produced in the United Kingdom and under licence in New Zealand, Canada and several other former British territories. The top markets for Gordon's are the UK, US, Greece and Africa...
, who also doubled the prize money to £40,000, with £5,000 going to each of the shortlisted artists, and £25,000 to the winner.
As much as the shortlist of artists reflects the state of British Art, the composition of the panel of judges, which includes curators and critics, provides some indication of who holds influence institutionally and internationally, as well as who are rising stars. Tate Director Sir Nicholas Serota
Nicholas Serota
Sir Nicholas Andrew Serota is a British art curator. Serota was director of the Whitechapel Gallery, London, and The Museum of Modern Art, Oxford, before becoming director of the Tate, the United Kingdom's national gallery of modern and British art in 1988. He was awarded a knighthood in 1999. He...
has been the Chair of the jury since his tenure at the Tate (with the exception of the current year when Chairman is the Director of Tate Liverpool, where the prize is being staged). There are conflicting reports as to how much personal sway he has over the proceedings.
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Young British Artists
Young British Artists or YBAs is the name given to a loose group of visual artists who first began to exhibit together in London, in 1988...
(several of whom were nominees and winners), Cool Britannia
Cool Britannia
Cool Britannia is a media term that was used during the late 20th century to describe the contemporary culture of the United Kingdom. The term was prevalent during the 1990s and later became closely associated with the early years of "New Labour" under Tony Blair...
, and exhibitions such as the Charles Saatchi
Charles Saatchi
Charles Saatchi is the co-founder with his brother Maurice of the global advertising agency Saatchi & Saatchi, and led that business - the world's largest advertising agency in the 1980s - until they were forced out in 1995. In the same year the Saatchi brothers formed a new agency called M&C...
-sponsored Sensation
Sensation exhibition
Sensation was an exhibition of the collection of contemporary art owned by Charles Saatchi, including many works by Young British Artists, which first took place 18 September – 28 December 1997 at the Royal Academy of Art in London and later toured to Berlin and New York...
exhibition.
Most of the artists nominated for the prize selection become known to the general public for the first time as a consequence, some have talked of the difficulty of the sudden media exposure. Sale prices of the winners have generally increased. Chris Ofili, Anish Kapoor and Jeremy Deller later became trustees of the Tate. Some artists, notably Sarah Lucas
Sarah Lucas
Sarah Lucas is an English artist. She is part of the generation of Young British Artists who emerged during the 1990s...
, have declined the invitation to be nominated.
Winners and nominees
1984
The first Turner Prize was award to Malcolm MorleyMalcolm Morley
Malcolm Morley is an English artist now living in the United States. He is best known as a photorealist.-Early life:Morley was born in north London. He had a troubled childhood, and did not discover art until serving a three-year stint in Wormwood Scrubs prison...
, an English artist living in the United States. Other nominees included sculptor Richard Deacon
Richard Deacon
Richard Deacon CBE is a British abstract sculptor, and a winner of the Turner Prize.-Life and work:Richard Deacon was born in Bangor, Wales and educated at Plymouth College. He then studied at the Somerset College of Art in Taunton, St Martin's School of Art in London and the Royal College of...
, graphic-styled collaborative duo Gilbert & George, abstract painter Howard Hodgkin and sculpture/installation artist Richard Long.
1985
Howard HodgkinHoward Hodgkin
Sir Gordon Howard Eliot Hodgkin CH, CBE is a British painter and printmaker. His work is most often associated with abstraction.-Early life:...
is awarded the Turner Prize for "A Small Thing But My Own." Other nominees included Terry Atkinson
Terry Atkinson
Terry Atkinson is an English artist.Atkinson was born in Thurnscoe, near Barnsley, Yorkshire. In 1967 he began to teach art at the Coventry School of Art while producing conceptual works, sometimes in collaboration with Michael Baldwin...
, sculptor Tony Cragg, Ian Hamilton Finlay
Ian Hamilton Finlay
Ian Hamilton Finlay, CBE, was a Scottish poet, writer, artist and gardener.-Biography:Finlay was born in Nassau, Bahamas of Scottish parents. He was educated in Scotland at Dollar Academy. At the age of 13, with the outbreak of World War II, he was evacuated to family in the countryside...
, Milena Kalinovska and painting/printing artist John Walker
John Walker
-Politicians:* John Walker , U.S. Senator, public official, and soldier* John Walker , State Treasurer of Missouri...
. The prize was awarded by celebrity presenter Sir Richard Attenborough
Richard Attenborough
Richard Samuel Attenborough, Baron Attenborough , CBE is a British actor, director, producer and entrepreneur. As director and producer he won two Academy Awards for the 1982 film Gandhi...
.
1986
The controversial art duo Gilbert & George were awarded after a previous nomination in 1984. Other nominees included Art & LanguageArt & Language
Art & Language is a shifting collaboration among conceptual artists that has undergone many changes since its inception in the late 1960s. Their early work, as well as their journal Art-Language, first published in 1969, is regarded as an important influence on much conceptual art both in the...
(collaborative group composed of Michael Baldwin and Mel Ramsden), sculpture/printing artist Victor Burgin
Victor Burgin
Victor Burgin is an artist and a writer. Burgin first came to attention as a conceptual artist in the late 1960s and at that time was most noted for being a political photographer of the left, who would fuse photographs and words in the same picture. He has worked with photography and film,...
, painter Derek Jarman
Derek Jarman
Michael Derek Elworthy Jarman was an English film director, stage designer, diarist, artist, gardener and author.-Life:...
, painter Stephen McKenna
Stephen McKenna
Stephen McKenna is a Scottish footballer who is currently signed for Queen of the South in the Scottish First Division. He plays primarily as a defensive central midfielder.-Airdrie:...
and sculptor Bill Woodrow
Bill Woodrow
Bill Woodrow is a British sculptor.Woodrow was one of a number of British sculptors to emerge in the late 1970s, the others including Richard Deacon and Tony Cragg....
.
1987
Sculpture artist Richard DeaconRichard Deacon
Richard Deacon CBE is a British abstract sculptor, and a winner of the Turner Prize.-Life and work:Richard Deacon was born in Bangor, Wales and educated at Plymouth College. He then studied at the Somerset College of Art in Taunton, St Martin's School of Art in London and the Royal College of...
is awarded. Other nominees included graphic-style painter/printer Patrick Caulfield
Patrick Caulfield
Patrick Joseph Caulfield, CBE, RA was an English painter and printmaker known for his bold canvases, which often incorporated elements of Photorealism within a pared down scene.-Life and work:...
, Helen Chadwick
Helen Chadwick
Helen Chadwick was a British conceptual artist.-Life and work:Chadwick studied at Croydon College of Art, The Faculty of Arts and Architecture Brighton Polytechnic and then at the Chelsea School of Art....
, Richard Long, Declan McGonagle and Thérèsa Oulton. The prize was presented by George Melly
George Melly
Alan George Heywood Melly was an English jazz and blues singer, critic, writer and lecturer. From 1965 to 1973 he was a film and television critic for The Observer and lectured on art history, with an emphasis on surrealism.-Early life and career:He was born in Liverpool and was educated at Stowe...
.
1988
Sculpture artist Tony CraggTony Cragg
Tony Cragg is a British visual artist specialized in sculpture. He is currently the director of the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf.-Early life:Cragg was born in Liverpool in 1949...
is awarded. Other nominees included figurative/portrait painter Lucian Freud
Lucian Freud
Lucian Michael Freud, OM, CH was a British painter. Known chiefly for his thickly impasted portrait and figure paintings, he was widely considered the pre-eminent British artist of his time...
, Pop artist Richard Hamilton
Richard Hamilton
Richard Hamilton may refer to:*Richard Hamilton , Irish officer*Richard Hamilton, 4th Viscount Boyne , Irish MP for Navan*Richard Hamilton , American actor...
, Richard Long, David Mach
David Mach
David Mach is a Scottish sculptor and installation artist.Mach's artistic style is based on flowing assemblages of mass-produced found art objects. Typically these include magazines,vicious teddy bears,newspapers, car tyres, match sticks and coat hangers...
, printer Boyd Webb, sculptor Alison Wilding
Alison Wilding
Alison Wilding RA is an English sculptor.-Biography:Born in Blackburn in Lancashire, Wilding studied at the Nottingham College of Art, the Ravensbourne College of Art and Design in Chislehurst and, from 1970 to 1973, the Royal College of Art in London...
and Richard Wilson
Richard Wilson
Ian Colquhoun Wilson OBE better known as Richard Wilson, is a Scottish actor, theatre director and broadcaster, best known for playing Victor Meldrew in the popular BBC sitcom One Foot in the Grave. He currently appears in the BBC drama Merlin.- Life and career :Wilson was born in Greenock, Scotland...
. The appointment of Tate Director, Nicholas Serota, led to many changes such as the introduction of an annual rehang of the Collection and giving priority to modern and contemporary art. During this period the future of the Prize was uncertain. The Turner Prize was modified to be an artist-only prize without a published shortlist and a solo exhibition was awarded to the winner, Tony Cragg.
1989
Sculpture and installation artist Richard LongRichard Long
-English political figures:*Richard Long , Gentleman of the Privy Chamber to Henry VIII; knighted in 1537; MP for Southwark...
is presented the prize after three previous nominations. Controversially, Long is awarded for his lifetime body of work rather than an exhibition of work in 1989. Other nominees included painter Gillian Ayres
Gillian Ayres
Gillian Ayres, CBE is an English painter.-Early life and career:Ayres was born on 3 February 1930 in Barnes, London, the youngest of three sisters. Ayres started school when she was six. Her parents, a prosperous couple, sent her to Ibstock, a progressive school in Roehampton run on Fröbel...
, figurative painter Lucian Freud, Italian-born sculptor Giuseppe Penone
Giuseppe Penone
Giuseppe Penone is an Italian artist. Penone started working professionally in 1968 in the Garessio forest, near where he was born. He is the younger member of the Italian movement named "Arte Povera", this term has been coined by Germano Celant. Penone's work is concerned with establishing a...
, painter Paula Rego
Paula Rego
Paula Rego is a painter born in Portugal although she is a naturalised British citizen.-Biography:Rego was born in the Portuguese capital Lisbon, the daughter of an electrical engineer who worked for the Marconi Company. Although this gave her a comfortable middle class home, the family was...
, abstract painter Sean Scully
Sean Scully
Sean Scully is an Irish-born American painter and printmaker who has twice been named a Turner Prize nominee. His work is collected in major museums worldwide.-Life and work:...
and Richard Wilson.
1990
No prize due to lack of sponsorship. Under Tate Director and Turner Prize chairman Nicholas Serota, changes are made to involve the public in the viewing of the nominated artist such as a published shortlist, a nomination of four shortlisted artists and an individual exhibition of nominated work within the Tate.1991
Anish KapoorAnish Kapoor
Anish Kapoor CBE RA is a British sculptor of Indian birth. Born in Mumbai , Kapoor has lived and worked in London since the early 1970s when he moved to study art, first at the Hornsey College of Art and later at the Chelsea School of Art and Design.He represented Britain in the XLIV Venice...
received the prize for an untitled piece in sandstone and pigment. Other nominees included abstract painters Ian Davenport
Ian Davenport
Ian Davenport is an English painter, and former Turner Prize nominee.-Life and work:Ian Davenport was born in Sidcup in London, and studied art at the Northwich College of Art and Design in Cheshire before going to Goldsmiths College from where he graduated in 1988...
, Fiona Rae
Fiona Rae
Fiona Rae is a British artist. Her work is firmly identified with the Young British Artists who rose to prominence in the 1990s....
and sculptor Rachel Whiteread
Rachel Whiteread
Rachel Whiteread, CBE is an English artist, best known for her sculptures, which typically take the form of casts. She won the annual Turner Prize in 1993—the first woman to win the prize....
.
1992
Grenville DaveyGrenville Davey
Grenville Davey is an English sculptor and winner of the 1992 Turner Prize.He is a professor of the University of East London school of Architecture and the Visual Arts...
received the prize for Entitled HAL, a work consisting of two abstract steel objects, each measuring 244 x 122 cm (96 x 48 in). Other nominees included the Young British Artist (yBA) Damien Hirst for his installations, photographer David Tremlett
David Tremlett
David Tremlett is a Cornish sculptor, installation artist and photographer. He currently lives and works in Bovingdon, Hertfordshire, Great Britain.- Biography :...
and sculptor Alison Wilding.
1993
Rachel WhitereadRachel Whiteread
Rachel Whiteread, CBE is an English artist, best known for her sculptures, which typically take the form of casts. She won the annual Turner Prize in 1993—the first woman to win the prize....
was the winner for House, a concrete cast of a house on the corner of Grove Road and Roman Road, London E3. Jimmy Cauty
Jimmy Cauty
James Francis Cauty is a British artist and musician born in Liverpool, England, in 1956...
and Bill Drummond
Bill Drummond
William Ernest Drummond is a Scottish artist, musician, writer and record producer. He was the co-founder of late 1980s avant-garde pop group The KLF and its 1990s media-manipulating successor, the K Foundation, with which he burned a million pounds in 1994...
of the K Foundation
K Foundation
The K Foundation was an art foundation set up by Bill Drummond and Jimmy Cauty in 1993, following their 'retirement' from the music industry. The Foundation served as an artistic outlet for the duo's post-retirement KLF income...
received media coverage for the award of the "Anti-Turner Prize
K Foundation art award
The 1994 K Foundation award was an award given by the K Foundation to the "worst artist of the year". The shortlist for the £40,000 K Foundation award was identical to the shortlist for the well-established but controversial £20,000 Turner Prize for the best British Contemporary artist...
", £40,000 to be given to the "worst artist in Britain", voted from the real Turner Prize's short-list. Rachel Whiteread was awarded their prize. She refused to accept the money at first, but changed her mind when she heard the cash was to be burned instead, and gave £30,000 of it to artists in financial need and the other £10,000 to the housing charity, Shelter
Shelter (charity)
Shelter is a registered charity in England and Scotland that campaigns to end homelessness and bad housing. It gives advice, information and advocacy to people in need, and tackles the root causes of bad housing by lobbying government and local authorities for new laws and policies to improve the...
. The K Foundation went on to make a film in which they burned £1 million of their own money (Watch the K Foundation Burn a Million Quid). Other nominees included pianter Sean Scully
Sean Scully
Sean Scully is an Irish-born American painter and printmaker who has twice been named a Turner Prize nominee. His work is collected in major museums worldwide.-Life and work:...
, Laotian-born Vong Phaophanit
Vong Phaophanit
Vong Phaophanit is an artist based in London. Born, in Savannakhet, Laos in 1961, Vong Phaophanit was educated in Paris and later studied at the Ecole des Beaux Arts, Aix en Provence, France. He met and married Claire Oboussier while they were both still students, moved to the UK in 1985 and became...
and printer Hannah Collins
Hannah Collins
Hannah Collins is a contemporary artist and filmmaker.Hannah Collins makes work on the collective experiences of memory, history and the everyday in the modern World...
.
1994
Popular sculptor Anthony Gormley is awarded the 1994 Turner Prize. Other nominees included video artist Northern Irish-born Willie DohertyWillie Doherty
Willie Doherty is an artist, who has mainly worked in photography and video. He has twice been a Turner Prize nominee.-Life and work:...
whose work is the first video art to be nominated into the prize and adding a political dimension, painter Peter Doig
Peter Doig
Peter Doig is a contemporary artist born in Scotland. In 2007, a painting of Doig's, entitled White Canoe, sold at Sotheby's for $11.3 million, then an auction record for a living European artist.-Early life:...
and multi-media Shirazeh Houshiary
Shirazeh Houshiary
Shirazeh Houshiary is an Iranian installation artist and sculptor. She is a former Turner Prize nominee, and lives and works in London.-Life and work:Shirazeh Houshiary left her native country of Iran in 1973...
.
1995
Damien HirstDamien Hirst
Damien Steven Hirst is an English artist, entrepreneur and art collector. He is the most prominent member of the group known as the Young British Artists , who dominated the art scene in Britain during the 1990s. He is internationally renowned, and is reportedly Britain's richest living artist,...
is awarded the 1995 Turner Prize which indluded his notorious sculpture Mother and Child, Divided. Other nominees included Palenstinian-born installation/video artist Mona Hatoum
Mona Hatoum
Mona Hatoum is a video artist and installation artist of Palestinian origin, who lives in London.- Lebanon :...
, abstract painter Callum Innes
Callum Innes
Callum Innes is a Scottish abstract painter and former Turner Prize nominee.-Life and work:Callum Innes was born in Edinburgh. He studied at Gray's School of Art and graduated from Edinburgh College of Art in 1985....
and multi-media artist Mark Wallinger
Mark Wallinger
Mark Wallinger is a British artist, best known for his sculpture for the empty fourth plinth in Trafalgar Square, Ecce Homo , and State Britain , a recreation at Tate Britain of Brian Haw's protest display outside parliament. He won the Turner Prize in 2007...
.
1996
Douglas GordonDouglas Gordon
Douglas Gordon is a Scottish artist; he won the Turner Prize in 1996 and the following year he represented Britain at the Venice Biennale...
becomes the first video artist to win the Turner Prize. Other nominees included photographer Craigie Horsfield
Craigie Horsfield
Craigie Horsfield is an English artist. In 1996 he was nominated for the annual Turner Prize.Horsfield described his work as, "intimate in scale but its ambition is, uncomfortable as I find it, towards an epic dimension, to describe the history of our century, and the centuries beyond, the...
, painter Gary Hume
Gary Hume
Gary Stewart Hume is an English artist. His work is strongly identified with the YBA artists who came to prominence in the early-1990s. In 1996, Hume was nominated for the Turner Prize, but lost out to Douglas Gordon. Hume was elected a Royal Academician in 2001.-Life and work:Hume was born in...
and installtion artist Simon Patterson
Simon Patterson
Simon Patterson is an English artist and was born in Leatherhead, Surrey. He was shortlisted for the Turner Prize in 1996 for his exhibitions at the Lisson Gallery, the Gandy Gallery, and three shows in Japan.-Life and career:...
.
1997
Gillian Wearing
Gillian Wearing OBE RA is an English conceptual artist, one of the YBAs, and winner of the annual British fine arts award, The Turner Prize, in 1997. On 11 December 2007, Wearing was elected as lifetime member of the Royal Academy of Arts in London....
, showed a video 60 minutes of Silence (1996), where a group of actors were dressed in police uniforms and had to stand still for an hour (occasional surreptitious scratching could be observed).
A drunken Tracey Emin
Tracey Emin
Tracey Karima Emin RA is a British artist of English and Turkish Cypriot origin. She is part of the group known as Britartists or YBAs ....
walked out of a live Channel 4 discussion programme, presented as part of the coverage of the award. The discussion was chaired by Tim Marlow
Tim Marlow
Tim Marlow is a British writer, broadcaster and art historian. He is best known for his regular feature on Channel Five - Tim Marlow on..., an occasional series in which he looks at current art exhibitions. He has also had several other art programs, radio programs and publications...
and also included Roger Scruton
Roger Scruton
Roger Vernon Scruton is a conservative English philosopher and writer. He is the author of over 30 books, including Art and Imagination , Sexual Desire , The Aesthetics of Music , and A Political Philosophy: Arguments For Conservatism...
, Waldemar Januszczak
Waldemar Januszczak
Waldemar Januszczak is a British art critic. Formerly the art critic of The Guardian, he now writes for The Sunday Times, and has twice won the Critic of the Year award...
, Richard Cork
Richard Cork
Dr Richard Cork is a British art historian, editor, critic, broadcaster and exhibition curator. He has been an art critic for the Evening Standard, The Listener, The Times and the New Statesman. Cork was also editor for Studio International. He is a past Turner Prize judge.-Life and work:Richard...
, David Sylvester
David Sylvester
Anthony David Bernard Sylvester CBE, was a British art critic and curator. Although he received no formal education in the arts, during his long career he was influential in promoting modern artists, in particular the work of Joan Miró, Lucian Freud and Francis Bacon.Born into a well connected...
and Norman Rosenthal
Norman Rosenthal
Sir Norman Rosenthal is a British curator. He was Exhibitions Secretary at the Royal Academy from 1977 until 2008. His encyclopedic programme of exhibitions which stretched from Egyptian antiquities to recent art production, included the exhibition of Charles Saatchi's collection of contemporary...
. Emin wrote about the incident in her 2005 book Strangeland, describing her shock at reading The Guardian
The Guardian
The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
writeup the following day.
This was the only time in history with an all-female shortlist including sculptor Christine Borland
Christine Borland
Christine Borland is a British artist and one of the Young British Artists . Borland attended the University of Ulster, and the Glasgow School of Art....
, Angela Bulloch
Angela Bulloch
Angela Bulloch , is an artist who often works with sound and installation; she is recognised as one of the Young British Artists.-Life and career:...
and sculptor Cornelia Parker
Cornelia Parker
Cornelia Ann Parker OBE, RA is an English sculptor and installation artist. -Life and career:Parker studied at Gloucestershire College of Art and Design and Wolverhampton Polytechnic...
.
1998
The talking point was Chris OfiliChris Ofili
Chris Ofili is a Turner Prize winning British painter best known for artworks referencing aspects of his Nigerian heritage, particularly his incorporation of elephant dung. He was one of the Young British Artists, and is now based in Trinidad.-Early life:Ofilli was born in Manchester. He had a...
's use of balls of elephant dung attached to his mixed media images on canvas, as well as being used as supports on the floor to prop them up. An illustrator deposited dung on the steps in protest against his work. Ofili won the prize and it was the first time in twelve years that a painter had done so; it was presented by French fashion designer agnès b.
Agnès b.
agnès b. is a French fashion designer. She is known for her self-named brand, which includes fashion and film interests.-Life and early career:...
Ofili joked, "Oh man. Thank God! Where's my cheque?" and said, "I don't know what to say. I am just really happy. I can't believe it. It feels like a film and I will watch the tape when I get home." One of Ofili's works, No Woman No Cry
No Woman No Cry (painting)
No Woman No Cry is a painting created by Chris Ofili in 1998. It was one of the works included in the exhibition which won him the Turner Prize that year . The Financial Times has described it as "[h]is masterpiece".The painting is in mixed media, including acrylic paint, oil paint, and polyester...
is based on the murder of Stephen Lawrence
Stephen Lawrence
Stephen Lawrence was a black British teenager from Eltham, southeast London, who was stabbed to death while waiting for a bus on the evening of 22 April 1993....
, murdered in a race attack.
The jury included musician Neil Tennant
Neil Tennant
Neil Francis Tennant is an English musician, singer and songwriter, who, with bandmate Chris Lowe, makes up the successful electronic dance music duo Pet Shop Boys.-Childhood:...
, author Marina Warner, curator Fumio Nanjo and British Council
British Council
The British Council is a United Kingdom-based organisation specialising in international educational and cultural opportunities. It is registered as a charity both in England and Wales, and in Scotland...
officer Ann Gallagher, chaired by Nicholas Serota.
Other nominees included installation artist Tacita Dean
Tacita Dean
Tacita Dean is an English visual artist who works primarily in film. She is one of the Young British Artists, and was a nominee for the Turner Prize in 1998.-Life and work:...
, sculptor Cathy de Monchaux
Cathy de Monchaux
Cathy de Monchaux is a British sculptor.de Monchaux was born in London. She studied first at the Camberwell School of Art , and later at Goldsmiths College in London ....
and video artist Sam Taylor-Wood
Sam Taylor-Wood
Samantha "Sam" Taylor-Wood OBE , born Samantha Taylor, is an English filmmaker, photographer, and visual artist. Her directorial feature film debut came in 2009 with Nowhere Boy, a film based on the childhood experiences of The Beatles songwriter and singer John Lennon...
. Ofili became the first painter to win the Turner Prize since Howard Hodgkin in 1985.
1999
Greatest attention was given to Tracey EminTracey Emin
Tracey Karima Emin RA is a British artist of English and Turkish Cypriot origin. She is part of the group known as Britartists or YBAs ....
's exhibit My Bed
My Bed
My Bed is a work by the British artist Tracey Emin. First created in 1998, it was exhibited at the Tate Gallery in 1999 as one of the shortlisted works for the Turner Prize. It consisted of her bed with bedroom objects in an abject state, and gained much media attention...
, which was a double bed in a dishevelled state with stained sheets, surrounded by detritus such as soiled underwear, condoms, slippers and empty drink bottles. Two artists, Yuan Chai and Jian Jun Xi
Yuan Chai and Jian Jun Xi
Yuan Chai and Jian Jun Xi are two Chinese performance artists, based in Britain, who work together and specialise in art intervention. They have enacted events at the Venice Biennale and the Turner Prize, where in 1999 they jumped onto Tracey Emin's My Bed.-Life:At the time of the My Bed incident ...
, jumped onto the bed, stripped to their underwear, and had a pillow fight. Police detained the two, who called their performance Two Naked Men Jump Into Tracey's Bed. They claimed that her work had not gone far enough, and that they were improving it. Charges were not pressed against them. Emin also displayed two-dimensional artwork and videos. She was commonly thought to have been the winner (and is still sometimes referred to as such), although in fact the Prize was given to Steve McQueen
Steve McQueen (artist)
Steve Rodney McQueen CBE is a British artist and filmmaker. He is a winner of the Golden Camera at the Cannes Film Festival, a Turner Prize and BAFTA.-Early years:...
for his video based on a Buster Keaton
Buster Keaton
Joseph Frank "Buster" Keaton was an American comic actor, filmmaker, producer and writer. He was best known for his silent films, in which his trademark was physical comedy with a consistently stoic, deadpan expression, earning him the nickname "The Great Stone Face".Keaton was recognized as the...
film.
Other nominees included Steve Pippin and collaborative sibling duo Jane and Louise Wilson
Jane and Louise Wilson
Jane Wilson and Louise Wilson are British artists who work together as a sibling duo. Jane and Louise Wilson's art work is based in video, film and photography...
.
2000
Wolfgang Tillmans
Wolfgang Tillmans is a German Fine-art photographer and artist. His comprehensive and diverse body of work is distinguished by observation of his surroundings and an ongoing investigation of the photographic medium’s foundations. In 2000, Tillmans was the first photographer and also the first...
. Other entries included a large painting by Glenn Brown
Glenn Brown
Glenn Brown is an English artist. He was nominated for the Turner Prize in 2000.-Working practice:Brown appropriates images created by living, working artists, such as Frank Auerbach and Howard Hodgkin, as well as images by artists more established in the historical canon, such as Rembrandt or...
based very closely on a science fiction
Science fiction
Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...
illustration some years previously.. Michael Raedecker
Michael Raedecker
Michael Raedecker is a Dutch artist based in London.Raedecker studied fashion at the Gerrit Rietveld Academie in Amsterdam from 1985-1990...
and Tomoko Takahashi
Tomoko Takahashi
Tomoko Takahashi is a Japanese artist born in Tokyo in 1966 and based in London, UK. She studied at Tama University, Goldsmiths College and the Slade School of Fine Art. She first came to attention when she won the EAST award at EASTinternational in 1997...
were also nominated.
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Stuckism
Stuckism is an international art movement founded in 1999 by Billy Childish and Charles Thomson to promote figurative painting in opposition to conceptual art...
art group staged their first demonstration against the prize, dressed as clowns, describing it as an "ongoing national joke" and "a state-funded advertising agency for Charles Saatchi
Charles Saatchi
Charles Saatchi is the co-founder with his brother Maurice of the global advertising agency Saatchi & Saatchi, and led that business - the world's largest advertising agency in the 1980s - until they were forced out in 1995. In the same year the Saatchi brothers formed a new agency called M&C...
", adding "the only artist who wouldn't be in danger of winning the Turner Prize is Turner", and concluding that it "should be re-named The Duchamp
Marcel Duchamp
Marcel Duchamp was a French artist whose work is most often associated with the Dadaist and Surrealist movements. Considered by some to be one of the most important artists of the 20th century, Duchamp's output influenced the development of post-World War I Western art...
Award for the destruction of artistic integrity." The Guardian announced the winner of Turner Prize with the headline "Turner Winner Riles the Stuckists".
2001
Martin Creed
Martin Creed is an artist and musician. He won the Turner Prize in 2001 for Work No. 227: the lights going on and off, which was an empty room in which the lights went on and off.-Life and work :...
's work, The Lights Going On and Off, which was an empty room with the lights going on and off. Artist Jacqueline Crofton threw eggs at the walls of the room containing Creed's work as a protest. At the prize ceremony, Madonna
Madonna (entertainer)
Madonna is an American singer-songwriter, actress and entrepreneur. Born in Bay City, Michigan, she moved to New York City in 1977 to pursue a career in modern dance. After performing in the music groups Breakfast Club and Emmy, she released her debut album in 1983...
gave him the prize and said, "At a time when political correctness is valued over honesty I would also like to say right on motherfuckers!" This was on live TV before the 9 p.m. "watershed
Watershed (television)
In television, the term watershed denotes the time period in a television schedule during which programs with adult content can air....
", and an attempt to "bleep" it out was too late. Channel 4 were subsequently given an official rebuke by the Independent Television Commission.
Other nominees included Richard Billingham
Richard Billingham
Richard Billingham is an English photographer and artist who is best known for his photobook Ray's A Laugh which documents the life of his alcoholic father Ray, and obese, heavily-tattooed mother, Liz.-Career:...
, video/installtion artist (and now film director) Isaac Julien
Isaac Julien
Isaac Julien is an installation artist and filmmaker.-Biography:Julien graduated from St Martin's School of Art in 1985, where he studied painting and fine art film...
and installtion artist Mike Nelson.
2002
The media focused on a large display by Fiona BannerFiona Banner
Fiona Banner is an English artist, who was short-listed for the Turner Prize in 2002. In 2010, she produced new work for a Duveen Hall commission at Tate Britain. She is one of the Young British Artists.-Life and work:...
whose wall-size text piece, Arsewoman in Wonderland, described a pornographic
Pornography
Pornography or porn is the explicit portrayal of sexual subject matter for the purposes of sexual arousal and erotic satisfaction.Pornography may use any of a variety of media, ranging from books, magazines, postcards, photos, sculpture, drawing, painting, animation, sound recording, film, video,...
film in detail. The Guardian
The Guardian
The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
asked, "It's art. But is it porn?" calling in "Britain's biggest porn star", Ben Dover
Ben Dover
Ben Dover is an English pornographic actor and director/producer of pornographic movies.-Beginnings in the adult film industry:...
, to comment. Culture Minister Kim Howells
Kim Howells
Kim Scott Howells is a British Labour Party politician, who was the Member of Parliament for Pontypridd from 1989 to 2010, and held a number of ministerial positions within the Government.-Biography:...
made a scathing criticism of the exhibits as "conceptual bullshit". Prince Charles
Charles, Prince of Wales
Prince Charles, Prince of Wales is the heir apparent and eldest son of Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh. Since 1958 his major title has been His Royal Highness The Prince of Wales. In Scotland he is additionally known as The Duke of Rothesay...
wrote to him: "It's good to hear your refreshing common sense about the dreaded Turner prize. It has contaminated the art establishment for so long." Graffiti artist Banksy
Banksy
Banksy is a pseudonymous England-based graffiti artist, political activist, film director, and painter.His satirical street art and subversive epigrams combine irreverent dark humour with graffiti done in a distinctive stencilling technique...
stencilled "Mind the crap" on the steps of the Tate, who called in emergency cleaners to remove it. The prize was won by Keith Tyson
Keith Tyson
Keith Tyson is a British artist. In 2002, he was the winner of the Turner Prize. His work is concerned with an interest in generative systems, and an embrace of the complexity and interconnectedness of existence...
.
Other nominees included Liam Gillick
Liam Gillick
Liam Gillick is a British conceptual artist who lives in New York City. He is often associated with the artists included the 1996 exhibit Traffic, which first introduced the term Relational Art.-Life and career:...
and Catherine Yass
Catherine Yass
Catherine Yass is an English artist.Catherine Yass was born in 1963 in London and in her early years lived in Hampstead. She later studied at the Slade School of Art, London and then at Hochschule der Künste, Berlin...
.
2003
The Chapman Brothers (Jake and Dinos Chapman) were given what was generally felt to be a long-overdue nomination, and caused press attention for a sculpture, Death, that appeared to be two cheap plastic blow-up sex dolls with a dildo. It was in fact made of bronze, painted to look like plastic.
Transvestism
Transvestism is the practice of cross-dressing, which is wearing clothing traditionally associated with the opposite sex. Transvestite refers to a person who cross-dresses; however, the word often has additional connotations. -History:Although the word transvestism was coined as late as the 1910s,...
Grayson Perry
Grayson Perry
Grayson Perry is an English artist, known mainly for his ceramic vases and cross-dressing. Perry's vases have classical forms and are decorated in bright colours, depicting subjects at odds with their attractive appearance. There is a strong autobiographical element in his work, in which images of...
who exhibited pots decorated with sexual imagery, and was the prize winner. He wore a flouncy skirt to collect the prize, announced by Sir Peter Blake
Peter Blake (artist)
Sir Peter Thomas Blake, KBE, CBE, RDI, RA is an English pop artist, best known for his design of the sleeve for the Beatles' album Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. He lives in Chiswick, London, UK.-Career:...
, who said, after being introduced by Sir Nicholas Serota, "Thank you very much Nick. I'm quite surprised to be here tonight, because two days ago I had a phone call asking if I would be a judge for the Not the Turner Prize. And two years ago I was asked by the Stuckists
Stuckism
Stuckism is an international art movement founded in 1999 by Billy Childish and Charles Thomson to promote figurative painting in opposition to conceptual art...
to dress as a clown and come and be on the steps outside, so I am thrilled and slightly surprised to be here."
Other nominees included Willie Doherty
Willie Doherty
Willie Doherty is an artist, who has mainly worked in photography and video. He has twice been a Turner Prize nominee.-Life and work:...
(his second nomination since 1994) and Anya Gallaccio
Anya Gallaccio
Anya Gallaccio is a Scottish artist, who often works with organic matter. She was a nominee in the 2003 Turner Prize.-Life and career:...
.
2004
The media focused on a large computer simulation of a former hideout of Osama bin LadenOsama bin Laden
Osama bin Mohammed bin Awad bin Laden was the founder of the militant Islamist organization Al-Qaeda, the jihadist organization responsible for the September 11 attacks on the United States and numerous other mass-casualty attacks against civilian and military targets...
by Ben Langlands and Nikki Bell
Langlands and Bell
Langlands & Bell, are two fine artists who work collaboratively as a duo; the two, Ben Langlands and Nikki Bell , began collaborating in 1978, while studying Fine Art at Middlesex Polytechnic in North London, from 1977 to 1980.-Artistic practice and career:Their artistic practice ranges from...
, as well as the fact that one of their exhibits, a film in a Kabul
Kabul
Kabul , spelt Caubul in some classic literatures, is the capital and largest city of Afghanistan. It is also the capital of the Kabul Province, located in the eastern section of Afghanistan...
courtroom was withdrawn as it related to an ongoing trial of a suspected Afghan warlord. Betting favourite Jeremy Deller
Jeremy Deller
Jeremy Deller is an English conceptual, video and installation artist. He is a Turner Prize winner.Deller is best-known for his Battle of Orgreave , a reenactment of the actual Battle of Orgreave which occurred during the UK miners' strike in 1984.-Life and work:Jeremy Deller was born in London,...
won the prize with his film Memory Bucket, documenting both George W. Bush
George W. Bush
George Walker Bush is an American politician who served as the 43rd President of the United States, from 2001 to 2009. Before that, he was the 46th Governor of Texas, having served from 1995 to 2000....
's hometown Crawford, Texas
Crawford, Texas
Crawford is a town located in western McLennan County, Texas, United States. It is best known as the home of former President of the United States George W. Bush. He currently resides at the Prairie Chapel Ranch, which is located just outside Crawford, Texas....
– and the siege
Waco Siege
The Waco siege began on February 28, 1993, and ended violently 50 days later on April 19. The siege began when the United States Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms attempted to execute a search warrant at the Branch Davidian ranch at Mount Carmel, a property located east-northeast of Waco,...
in nearby Waco
Waco, Texas
Waco is a city in and the county seat of McLennan County, Texas. Situated along the Brazos River and on the I-35 corridor, halfway between Dallas and Austin, it is the economic, cultural, and academic center of the 'Heart of Texas' region....
. The prize money was increased this year with £25,000 to the winner, and, for the first time, other nominees were rewarded (with £5,000 each).
Other nominees included Kutluğ Ataman
Kutlug Ataman
Kutluğ Ataman is a filmmaker and contemporary artist. He lives in Istanbul.-Life and career:Kutluğ Ataman received his school education in Istanbul before doing his university studies in the US. His interest in film started an early age, and led him to do film studies at UCLA where he graduated...
and installation/photograph/sculpture artist Yinka Shonibare
Yinka Shonibare
Yinka Shonibare, MBE, is a British-Nigerian artist living in the UK. He readily acknowledges physical disability as part of his identity but creates work in which this is just one strand of a far richer weave.-Life and career:...
who was tipped as the public's favourite amongst the other nominees.
2005
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Simon Starling
Simon Starling is an English conceptual artist and was the winner of the 2005 Turner Prize. He lives and works in Copenhagen and Berlin, and is a professor of art at the Städelschule in Frankfurt am Main.-Biography:...
, which was a shed that he had converted into a boat, sailed down the River Rhine and turned back into a shed again. Two newspapers bought sheds and floated them to parody the work. The prize was presented by Culture Minister, David Lammy
David Lammy
David Lindon Lammy is a British Labour Party politician, who has been the Member of Parliament for Tottenham since 2000.Lammy has commented on Britain's history of slavery.-Early life and Education:...
. Before introducing him, Sir Nicholas Serota, in an "unusual, possibly unprecedented" move, took the opportunity to make "an angry defence" of the Tate's purchase of The Upper Room
The Upper Room (paintings)
The Upper Room is an installation of 13 paintings of rhesus macaque monkeys by English artist Chris Ofili in a specially-designed room. It was bought by the Tate gallery in 2005 from the Victoria Miro Gallery and was the cause of a media furore after a campaign initiated by the Stuckist art group...
.
2006
.jpg)
Yoko Ono
is a Japanese artist, musician, author and peace activist, known for her work in avant-garde art, music and filmmaking as well as her marriage to John Lennon...
, the celebrity announcer chosen for the year, declared Tomma Abts
Tomma Abts
Tomma Abts is a German-born abstract painter who won the Turner Prize in 2006.-Early life:Abts was born in Kiel in Germany and currently lives and works in London, England.-Work:...
the winner on December 4 during a live Channel 4 broadcast, although this was part of the evening news broadcast, rather than in a dedicated programme as in recent years. The total prize money was £40,000. £25,000 awarded to the winner and £5,000 to each of the other 3 nominees. The prize was sponsored by the makers of Gordon's Gin
Gordon's Gin
Gordon's is a brand of London Dry gin produced in the United Kingdom and under licence in New Zealand, Canada and several other former British territories. The top markets for Gordon's are the UK, US, Greece and Africa...
.
Under the Freedom of Information Act
Freedom of Information Act 2000
The Freedom of Information Act 2000 is an Act of Parliament of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that creates a public "right of access" to information held by public authorities. It is the implementation of freedom of information legislation in the United Kingdom on a national level...
, The Sunday Telegraph obtained emails between the Tate and judge Lynn Barber
Lynn Barber
Lynn Barber is a British journalist, who writes for The Sunday Times.-Early life:Barber attended Lady Eleanor Holles School...
, which revealed that the judges had been sent a list of shows by artists too late to be able to see them and instead were being supplied with catalogues and photographs of work.
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The Observer
The Observer is a British newspaper, published on Sundays. In the same place on the political spectrum as its daily sister paper The Guardian, which acquired it in 1993, it takes a liberal or social democratic line on most issues. It is the world's oldest Sunday newspaper.-Origins:The first issue,...
about her troubles as a judge, even asking, "Is it all a fix?", a comment subsequently displayed on a Stuckist demonstration placard, much to her chagrin.
The Judges were:
- Lynn Barber, journalist, The ObserverThe ObserverThe Observer is a British newspaper, published on Sundays. In the same place on the political spectrum as its daily sister paper The Guardian, which acquired it in 1993, it takes a liberal or social democratic line on most issues. It is the world's oldest Sunday newspaper.-Origins:The first issue,...
- Margot Heller, Director, South London GallerySouth London GallerySouth London Gallery, founded 1891, often known by the acronym SLG, is a public-funded gallery of contemporary art in Camberwell, London - exhibiting artists included Alfredo Jaar, Ryan Gander and Chris Burden...
- Matthew HiggsMatthew HiggsMatthew Higgs is a British artist, curator, writer and publisher. His contribution to UK contemporary art has included the creation of Imprint 93, a series of artists’ editions featuring the work of artists such as Martin Creed and Jeremy Deller...
, Director and Chief Curator, White Columns, New York - Andrew Renton, writer and Director of Curating, Goldsmiths CollegeGoldsmiths CollegeGoldsmiths, University of London is a public research university located in London, United Kingdom which specialises in the arts, humanities and social sciences, and a constituent college of the federal University of London. It was founded in 1891 as Goldsmiths' Technical and Recreative Institute...
- Nicholas SerotaNicholas SerotaSir Nicholas Andrew Serota is a British art curator. Serota was director of the Whitechapel Gallery, London, and The Museum of Modern Art, Oxford, before becoming director of the Tate, the United Kingdom's national gallery of modern and British art in 1988. He was awarded a knighthood in 1999. He...
, Director, Tate and Chairman of the Jury
2007
Mark Wallinger
Mark Wallinger is a British artist, best known for his sculpture for the empty fourth plinth in Trafalgar Square, Ecce Homo , and State Britain , a recreation at Tate Britain of Brian Haw's protest display outside parliament. He won the Turner Prize in 2007...
. His display at the Turner Prize show was Sleeper, a film of him dressed in a bear costume wandering around an empty museum, but the prize was officially given for State Britain
State Britain
State Britain is an installation artwork by Mark Wallinger displayed in Tate Britain in January 2007. It is a recreation from scratch of a protest display about the treatment of Iraq, set up by Brian Haw outside Parliament and eventually confiscated by the police. Haw's display contained several...
, which recreated all the objects in Brian Haw
Brian Haw
Brian William Haw was an English protester and peace campaigner who lived for almost ten years in a camp in London's Parliament Square from 2001, in a protest against UK and US foreign policy...
's anti-war display in Parliament Square
Parliament Square
Parliament Square is a square outside the northwest end of the Palace of Westminster in London. It features a large open green area in the middle, with a group of trees to its west. It contains statues of famous statesmen and is the scene of rallies and protests, as well as being a tourist...
, London. The judges commended Wallinger's work for its "immediacy, visceral intensity and historic importance", and called it "a bold political statement with art's ability to articulate fundamental human truths." The prize was presented by Dennis Hopper
Dennis Hopper
Dennis Lee Hopper was an American actor, filmmaker and artist. As a young man, Hopper became interested in acting and eventually became a student of the Actors' Studio. He made his first television appearance in 1954 and appeared in two films featuring James Dean, Rebel Without a Cause and Giant...
.
For the first time in its 23 year history, the Turner Prize was held outside of London, in Tate Liverpool
Tate Liverpool
Tate Liverpool is an art gallery and museum in Liverpool, Merseyside, England, and part of Tate, along with Tate St Ives, Cornwall, Tate Britain, London, and Tate Modern, London. The museum was an initiative of the Merseyside Development Corporation...
(in support of Liverpool
Liverpool
Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough of Merseyside, England, along the eastern side of the Mersey Estuary. It was founded as a borough in 1207 and was granted city status in 1880...
being the European Capital of Culture
European Capital of Culture
The European Capital of Culture is a city designated by theEuropean Union for a period of one calendar year during which it organises a series of cultural events with a strong European dimension....
in 2008). Concurrently there was an exhibition of previous winners at Tate Britain in London.
Unlike recent years, Sir Nicholas Serota
Nicholas Serota
Sir Nicholas Andrew Serota is a British art curator. Serota was director of the Whitechapel Gallery, London, and The Museum of Modern Art, Oxford, before becoming director of the Tate, the United Kingdom's national gallery of modern and British art in 1988. He was awarded a knighthood in 1999. He...
was not the jury chairman; instead, the chairman was Christoph Grunenberg, the Director of Tate Liverpool. The panel was:
- Fiona Bradley, Director of the Fruitmarket GalleryFruitmarket GalleryThe Fruitmarket Gallery is an art gallery in Edinburgh, Scotland. It is located in the centre of the city on Market Street, beside Edinburgh Waverley train station....
, Edinburgh - Michael BracewellMichael BracewellMichael Bracewell is a British writer and novelist. He was born in London, and educated at the University of Nottingham.-Bibliography:*Fiction**Missing Margate **The Crypto-Amnesia Club...
, critic and writer - Thelma Golden, Director and Chief Curator of the Studio Museum, Harlem
- Miranda SawyerMiranda SawyerMiranda Sawyer is an English journalist and broadcaster.She grew up in Wilmslow, Cheshire with her brother Toby, who is an actor. She has a degree in Jurisprudence from Pembroke College, Oxford...
, writer and broadcaster - Christoph Grunenberg, Director of Tate Liverpool (Chairman of the Jury)
The nominees were:
- Mark WallingerMark WallingerMark Wallinger is a British artist, best known for his sculpture for the empty fourth plinth in Trafalgar Square, Ecce Homo , and State Britain , a recreation at Tate Britain of Brian Haw's protest display outside parliament. He won the Turner Prize in 2007...
for his Tate Britain installation, State BritainState BritainState Britain is an installation artwork by Mark Wallinger displayed in Tate Britain in January 2007. It is a recreation from scratch of a protest display about the treatment of Iraq, set up by Brian Haw outside Parliament and eventually confiscated by the police. Haw's display contained several... - Nathan ColeyNathan ColeyNathan Coley is a contemporary British installation artist, who was nominated for the Turner Prize in 2007....
, a Glasgow artist, who makes installations based on buildings - Zarina BhimjiZarina BhimjiZarina Bhimji is a Ugandan Asian photographer and film maker, who was nominated for the Turner Prize in 2007.-Life and work:...
, a Ugandan Asian photographer and filmmaker - Mike NelsonMike Nelson (artist)Michael "Mike" Nelson is a contemporary British installation artist. He represented Britain at the Venice Biennale in 2011. Nelson has twice been nominated for the Turner Prize: first in 2001 , and again in 2007 .-Working practice:Nelson's installations typically exist only for the time period...
, an installation artist
Nelson and Wallinger had both previously been nominated for the prize.
The Stuckists
Stuckism
Stuckism is an international art movement founded in 1999 by Billy Childish and Charles Thomson to promote figurative painting in opposition to conceptual art...
announced that they were not demonstrating
Stuckist demonstrations
Stuckist demonstrations since 2000 have been a key part of the Stuckist art group's activities and have succeeded in giving them a high profile both in Britain and abroad...
for the first time since 2000, because of "the lameness of this year's show, which does not merit the accolade of the traditional demo". Instead, art group AAS reenacted previous Stuckist demonstrations in protest against their own practice at the Royal Standard Turner Prize Extravaganza
2008
For the second year running, Sir Nicholas Serota did not chair the Turner Prize jury; instead Stephen Deuchar, director of Tate Britain, was the chair. The other members were Jennifer Higgie, editor of friezeFrieze (magazine)
-Publication:frieze is published eight times a year and is based in London. As well as essays, exhibition reviews and columns by forward-thinking writers, artists, critics and curators, the magazine includes music reviews, artist projects, interviews and sections on design and...
, Daniel Birnbaum, rector of the Staedelschule international art academy, Frankfurt, architect David Adjaye
David Adjaye
David Adjaye OBE is a British architect.-Early life:David Adjaye was born in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. The son of a Ghanaian diplomat who has lived in Tanzania, Egypt, Yemen and Lebanon before moving to Britain at the age of nine, he led a privileged life and was privately educated...
, and Suzanne Cotter, senior curator, Modern Art Oxford
Modern Art Oxford
Modern Art Oxford is an art gallery established in 1965 in Oxford, England. From 1965 to 2002, it was called The Museum of Modern Art, Oxford.-Foundation:...
. The prize winner received £25,000 and the other three nominees £5,000 each. In recent years the prize has attracted commercial sponsorship, but did not have any during the 2008 events. The nominees were Runa Islam
Runa Islam
Runa Islam is a Bangladesh born artist based in London, and was a nominee for the 2008 Turner Prize. Islam is principally known for her film works.-Background:...
, Mark Leckey
Mark Leckey
Mark Leckey is a British artist, working with collage art, music and video. His found art and found footage pieces span several videos, most notably Fiorucci Made Me Hardcore and Industrial Lights and Magic , for which he won the 2008 Turner Prize.-Life:Leckey was born in Birkenhead, near...
, Goshka Macuga
Goshka Macuga
Goshka Macuga is an artist based in London. She was one of the four nominees for the 2008 Turner Prize.-Life and work:Goshka Macuga was born in Poland. A graduate of Central St...
, and Cathy Wilkes
Cathy Wilkes
Cathy Wilkes is an artist from Northern Ireland, who creates video installations. She is a 2008 Turner Prize nominee.-Life and work:...
; the Prize exhibition opened at Tate Britain on 30 September and the winner was announced on 1 December. Mark Leckey was the winner of the Turner Prize of 2008.
2009
The winner of the £25,000 Prize was Richard WrightRichard Wright (artist)
Richard Wright is a British artist and musician.Wright was born in London. His family moved to Scotland when he was young. He attended Edinburgh College of Art from 1978 to 1982 and studied at Glasgow School of Art between 1993 and 1995 studying for a Master of Fine Art...
.
Stephen Deuchar again chaired the jury.
The other shortlisted artists were Enrico David
Enrico David
Enrico David is an artist based in London. He works in drawing, sculpture and installation, usually involving adaptions of traditional craft techniques. He makes large scale embroidered portraits using sewn canvases, which begin as drawings and collages from fashion magazines. He often uses...
, Roger Hiorns
Roger Hiorns
Roger Hiorns is a British artist. He was nominated for the Turner Prize in 2009.Hiorns was born in Birmingham. He attended the Bournville College of Art from 1991 to 1993, and Goldsmiths College in London from 1993 to 1996. He lives in London....
and Lucy Skaer
Lucy Skaer
Lucy Skaer is a British artist.Skaer was born in Cambridge and studied at the Glasgow School of Art from 1993 to 1997, graduating with a BA Hons in Fine Art. She currently lives and works in Glasgow and London....
.
2010
The winner was Susan PhilipszSusan Philipsz
Susan Philipsz is a Scottish artist who won the 2010 Turner Prize. In her youth, she sang with her sisters in a Catholic church choir in Maryhill. She studied at Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art in Dundee from 1989–1993 and then at the University of Ulster in Belfast in 1993-4. She was a...
who graduated from Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art & Design
Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design
Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design is an integral part of the University of Dundee in Dundee, Scotland. It is ranked as one of the top schools of art and design in the United Kingdom and has an outstanding reputation in both practice and research.-History:Attempts were made to...
in Dundee. She was the first artist ever to win with a purely aural work, having made an installation under three bridges in Glasgow
Glasgow
Glasgow is the largest city in Scotland and third most populous in the United Kingdom. The city is situated on the River Clyde in the country's west central lowlands...
in which she sung the traditional Scottish song "Lowlands Away". For the Turner Prize, the work consisted simply of loudspeakers installed along the walls in a gallery room. The other artists nominated were Dexter Dalwood
Dexter Dalwood
Dexter Dalwood is an artist based in London. He attended Humphry Davy School in his early life. Dalwood received his BA from Central St Martins College of Art, London, in 1985...
, Angela de la Cruz
Angela de la Cruz
Angela de la Cruz is a Spanish artist. She was nominated for the Turner Prize in 2010. De la Cruz was born in La Coruña. She studied philosophy at the University of Santiago de Compostela, before moving to London in 1989, where she studied art at the Chelsea College of Art, Goldsmiths College...
, and the Otolith Group.
2011
The 2011 Turner Prize is taking place in GatesheadGateshead
Gateshead is a town in Tyne and Wear, England and is the main settlement in the Metropolitan Borough of Gateshead. Historically a part of County Durham, it lies on the southern bank of the River Tyne opposite Newcastle upon Tyne and together they form the urban core of Tyneside...
at the Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art
BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art
The Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art is an international centre for contemporary art located on the south bank of the River Tyne alongside the Gateshead Millennium Bridge in Gateshead, North East England, United Kingdom...
, away from the Tate in London for the first time since 2007. The four nominees for the 2011 Turner Prize are Karla Black
Karla Black
Karla Black is a Scottish sculptor whose work, More of Today, was nominated for the Turner Prize in 2011.She was born in 1972 in Alexandria and went to the Glasgow School of Art, where she became a Master of Arts in 2004....
, Martin Boyce, Hilary Lloyd
Hilary Lloyd
Hilary Lloyd is an English artist whose exhibition of film and video at Raven Row arts centre was nominated for the Turner Prize in 2011.She was born in 1964 in Halifax and studied art at the Newcastle Polytechnic. She now works and lives in London but has exhibited internationally in cities such...
and George Shaw
George Shaw (artist)
George Shaw is an Ilfracombe-based contemporary artist who is noted for his highly detailed naturalistic approach and English suburban subject matter...
.
For
- Critic Richard CorkRichard CorkDr Richard Cork is a British art historian, editor, critic, broadcaster and exhibition curator. He has been an art critic for the Evening Standard, The Listener, The Times and the New Statesman. Cork was also editor for Studio International. He is a past Turner Prize judge.-Life and work:Richard...
said, "there will never be a substitute for approaching new art with an open mind, unencumbered by rancid clichés. As long as the Turner Prize facilitates such engagement, the buzz surrounding it will remain a minor distraction." - In 2006, newspaper columnist Janet Street-PorterJanet Street-PorterJanet Street-Porter is a British media personality, journalist and television presenter. She was editor for two years of The Independent on Sunday. She relinquished the job to become editor-at-large in 2002...
condemned the Stuckists'StuckismStuckism is an international art movement founded in 1999 by Billy Childish and Charles Thomson to promote figurative painting in opposition to conceptual art...
"feeble knee-jerk reaction" to the prize and said, "The Turner Prize and Becks Futures both entice thousands of young people into art galleries for the first time every year. They fulfil a valuable role". - Sarah ThorntonSarah ThorntonSarah Thornton is a writer and sociologist of culture. Her early work was about clubs, raves, music taste and cultural hierarchies. Thornton has authored and edited works about subcultures. She now writes principally about art, artists and the art market...
said that the Turner Prize "has a reputation for being a reliable indicator of an artist’s ability to sustain a vibrant art practice over the long term, but perhaps it is a self-fulfilling prophecy. The personal confidence gained from being nominated can galvanize an artist’s ambitions, while the museum’s public endorsement leads to further exhibition opportunities." - Dan Fox, associate editor of friezeFrieze (magazine)-Publication:frieze is published eight times a year and is based in London. As well as essays, exhibition reviews and columns by forward-thinking writers, artists, critics and curators, the magazine includes music reviews, artist projects, interviews and sections on design and...
, said that the Turner Prize should be considered a barometer for the mood of the nation.
Against
- The Evening StandardEvening StandardThe Evening Standard, now styled the London Evening Standard, is a free local daily newspaper, published Monday–Friday in tabloid format in London. It is the dominant regional evening paper for London and the surrounding area, with coverage of national and international news and City of London...
critic Brian SewellBrian SewellBrian Sewell is an English art critic and media personality. He writes for the London Evening Standard and is noted for artistic conservatism and his acerbic view of the Turner Prize and conceptual art...
wrote "The annual farce of the Turner Prize is now as inevitable in November as is the pantomime at Christmas".
- Critic Matthew CollingsMatthew Collings-Life and career:In one of his books on art, Collings states that, in his early teenage years, he ran away to Canada. This act was preceded by a period of hanging around in a house in Oakley Street, Chelsea, whose residents included members of various rock bands including Mighty Baby and Family...
wrote: "Turner Prize art is based on a formula where something looks startling at first and then turns out to be expressing some kind of banal idea, which somebody will be sure to tell you about. The ideas are never important or even really ideas, more notions, like the notions in advertising. Nobody pursues them anyway, because there's nothing there to pursue."
- The art critic David LeeDavid Lee (art critic)David Lee is an outspoken, English, contemporary, art critic—condemning conceptual art in general and the Turner Prize in particular...
has argued that since the re-organisation of the prize in 1991 the shortlist has been dominated by artists represented by a small number of London dealers, namely Nicholas Logsdail of the Lisson GalleryLisson GalleryThe Lisson Gallery is a contemporary art gallery in Bell Street, Lisson Grove, London, founded by Nicholas Logsdail in 1967. The gallery represents such artists as Ai Weiwei, John Latham, Sol LeWitt, Robert Mangold, Jonathan Monk, Julian Opie, Richard Wentworth and Turner Prize winners Anish Kapoor...
, and others closely linked to the collector Charles SaatchiCharles SaatchiCharles Saatchi is the co-founder with his brother Maurice of the global advertising agency Saatchi & Saatchi, and led that business - the world's largest advertising agency in the 1980s - until they were forced out in 1995. In the same year the Saatchi brothers formed a new agency called M&C...
: Jay JoplingJay JoplingJeremy "Jay" Jopling is an English art dealer and gallery owner. He is closely associated with the YBA artists and his gallery White Cube represents the commercial interests of YBAs Jake & Dinos Chapman, Tracey Emin, Marcus Harvey, Damien Hirst, Gary Hume, Marc Quinn, and Sam Taylor-Wood, whom he...
, Maureen PaleyMaureen PaleyMaureen Paley is the American owner of a contemporary art gallery in Bethnal Green, London, where she lives. It was founded in 1984, called Interim Art during the 1990s, and renamed Maureen Paley in 2004. She exhibited Young British Artists at an early stage...
and Victoria MiroVictoria Miro GalleryThe Victoria Miro Gallery is a leading British contemporary art gallery in London, with an international reputation, run by Victoria Miro, one of the "grandes dames of the Britart scene", who first exhibited Chris Ofili and the Chapman Brothers...
. The Lisson GalleryLisson GalleryThe Lisson Gallery is a contemporary art gallery in Bell Street, Lisson Grove, London, founded by Nicholas Logsdail in 1967. The gallery represents such artists as Ai Weiwei, John Latham, Sol LeWitt, Robert Mangold, Jonathan Monk, Julian Opie, Richard Wentworth and Turner Prize winners Anish Kapoor...
has had the most success of any gallery with the Turner Prize from 1991 to 2004.
- In 2002, Culture Minister (and former art student) Kim HowellsKim HowellsKim Scott Howells is a British Labour Party politician, who was the Member of Parliament for Pontypridd from 1989 to 2010, and held a number of ministerial positions within the Government.-Biography:...
pinned the following statement to a board in a room specially-designated for visitors' comments: "If this is the best British artists can produce then British art is lost. It is cold mechanical, conceptual bullshit. Kim Howells. P.S. The attempts at conceptualisation are particularly pathetic and symptomatic of a lack of conviction."
Alternative and spoof prizes
The Turner Prize has spawned various other prizes in reaction to or ridiculing it. In 1993, the K FoundationK Foundation
The K Foundation was an art foundation set up by Bill Drummond and Jimmy Cauty in 1993, following their 'retirement' from the music industry. The Foundation served as an artistic outlet for the duo's post-retirement KLF income...
gave an "Anti-Turner Prize
K Foundation art award
The 1994 K Foundation award was an award given by the K Foundation to the "worst artist of the year". The shortlist for the £40,000 K Foundation award was identical to the shortlist for the well-established but controversial £20,000 Turner Prize for the best British Contemporary artist...
" of £40,000 for the "worst artist in Britain" with the same short list as the official prize: the winner of both prizes was Rachel Whiteread
Rachel Whiteread
Rachel Whiteread, CBE is an English artist, best known for her sculptures, which typically take the form of casts. She won the annual Turner Prize in 1993—the first woman to win the prize....
. In 1999, Trevor Prideaux organised the ongoing Turnip Prize
Turnip Prize
The Turnip Prize is a spoof UK award that satirises the Tate Gallery's Turner Prize by rewarding deliberately bad modern art. It was started mainly as a joke in 1999, but has gained national media attention and inspired other similar prizes...
as "a crap art competition... You can enter anything you like, but it must be rubbish"; the judging criteria include "Lack of effort" and "Is it shit?". In 2000 the Stuckists
Stuckism
Stuckism is an international art movement founded in 1999 by Billy Childish and Charles Thomson to promote figurative painting in opposition to conceptual art...
instituted "The Real Turner Prize" for painters, and an "Art Clown of the Year Award" for "outstanding idiocy in the visual arts", both continued in subsequent years (the Clown award given in 2002 to Serota).
In 2002, Quintessentially, a private members' club run by Tom Parker Bowles
Tom Parker Bowles
Thomas Henry Parker Bowles is the son of Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall and Andrew Parker Bowles. His stepfather and godfather is Prince Charles, Prince of Wales. His younger sister is Laura Lopes....
, ran the "Alternative Turner Prize" with judges including Brian Sewell
Brian Sewell
Brian Sewell is an English art critic and media personality. He writes for the London Evening Standard and is noted for artistic conservatism and his acerbic view of the Turner Prize and conceptual art...
, who said it was for "a wider and more generous choice of art and artist." In 2003, the Daily Mail
Daily Mail
The Daily Mail is a British daily middle-market tabloid newspaper owned by the Daily Mail and General Trust. First published in 1896 by Lord Northcliffe, it is the United Kingdom's second biggest-selling daily newspaper after The Sun. Its sister paper The Mail on Sunday was launched in 1982...
ran a "Not the Turner Prize" competition. In 2005, the BBC staged a "Mock Turner". In 2002, the alTURNERtive Prize
Alturnertive Prize
The alTURNERtive Prize was established in 2002, at Welling School in South east London by Henry Ward. The exhibition encourages students to engage with independent practice and is timed to coincide with the Turner Prize at the Tate...
was established at Welling School in Bexley, London, by Henry Ward. The exhibition celebrates the contemporary artwork by students aged 14–18. Since 2002 the exhibition has been judged by critics such as Michael Archer (who judged the Turner Prize the year Keith Tyson won) and has been presented by Richard Wentworth, Hew Locke and Ryan Gander.
In 2007, an "Alternative Turner Prize" was staged at Tate Liverpool
Tate Liverpool
Tate Liverpool is an art gallery and museum in Liverpool, Merseyside, England, and part of Tate, along with Tate St Ives, Cornwall, Tate Britain, London, and Tate Modern, London. The museum was an initiative of the Merseyside Development Corporation...
for those aged 13–25. Also in that year, Merseyside Stop the War Coalition held the "Alturnertive Turner Prize" in Liverpool with support from Mark Wallinger
Mark Wallinger
Mark Wallinger is a British artist, best known for his sculpture for the empty fourth plinth in Trafalgar Square, Ecce Homo , and State Britain , a recreation at Tate Britain of Brian Haw's protest display outside parliament. He won the Turner Prize in 2007...
. And again in 2007 John Lowrie Morrison
John Lowrie Morrison
John Lowrie Morrison OBE , known as Jolomo, is a Scottish contemporary artist.He was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire in the 2011 New Year Honours for services to art and charity in Scotland....
initiated the Jolomo Award
Jolomo Award
Founded in 2007 by the Scottish Landscape Artist John Lowrie Morrison, the biennial Jolomo Award is the largest arts award in Scotland and the UK's largest privately-funded arts award with a prize currently of £25,000 for the winner in 2011....
a £20,000 prize for Scottish Landscape painting as a sort of Anti Turner Prize (now £25,000 for winner, £35,000 for all the prizes).
In 2008, a "Turner Prize" was promoted by two brothers named Turner for the Holmfirth
Holmfirth
Holmfirth is a small town located on the A6024 Woodhead Road in the Holme Valley, within the Metropolitan Borough of Kirklees, West Yorkshire, England. Centred upon the confluence of the Holme and Ribble rivers, Holmfirth is south of Huddersfield and from Glossop. It mostly consists of...
Arts Festival with exhibits in vans.
See also
- List of prizes, medals, and awards
- Marcel Duchamp PrizeMarcel Duchamp PrizeThe Marcel Duchamp Prize is an annual award given to a young artist. The winner receives €35,000 personally and up to €30,000 in order to produce an exhibition of their work in the Modern Art museum...
- Turnip PrizeTurnip PrizeThe Turnip Prize is a spoof UK award that satirises the Tate Gallery's Turner Prize by rewarding deliberately bad modern art. It was started mainly as a joke in 1999, but has gained national media attention and inspired other similar prizes...
, awarded annually as a spoof of the Turner Prize
External links
- The Turner Prize, official Tate gallery web site
- 20 years of Turner Prize winners (image gallery), The Guardian
- Video of all the winners and artists
- Turner Prize, Glasgow University project
- Martin Herbert on the Turner Prize
- Tate Magazine (2002) feature, including statistical analysis
- Live coverage of presentation of 2006 prize (starts with short ad)
- BBC News coverage of some 2009 artwork (shortlist)