The Turner Prize, named after the English painter

J. M. W. Turner Joseph Mallord William Turner (23 April 177519 December 1851), known in his time as William Turner, was an English Romantic painter, printmaker and watercolourist. He is known for his expressive colouring, imaginative landscapes and turbulen ...

, is an annual prize presented to a British visual artist. Between 1991 and 2016, only artists under the age of 50 were eligible (this restriction was removed for the 2017 award). The prize is awarded at

Tate Britain Tate Britain, known from 1897 to 1932 as the National Gallery of British Art and from 1932 to 2000 as the Tate Gallery, is an art museum on Millbank in the City of Westminster in London, England. It is part of the Tate network of galleries in E ...

every other year, with various venues outside of London being used in alternate years. Since its beginnings in 1984 it has become the UK's most publicised art award. The award represents all media. As of 2004, the monetary award was established at £40,000. There have been different sponsors, including

Channel 4 Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network operated by the state-owned enterprise, state-owned Channel Four Television Corporation. It began its transmission on 2 November 1982 and was established to provide a four ...

television and

Gordon's Gin Gordon's is a brand of London dry gin first produced in 1769. The top markets for Gordon's are the United Kingdom, the United States and Greece. It is owned by the British spirits company Diageo. It is the world's best-selling London dry gin. G ...

. A prominent event in

British culture British culture is influenced by the combined nations' history; its historically Christian religious life, its interaction with the cultures of Europe, the traditions of England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland and the impact of the British Empir ...

, the prize has been awarded by various distinguished celebrities: in 2006 this was

Yoko Ono Yoko Ono ( ; ja, 小野洋子, Ono Yōko, usually spelled in katakana ; born February 18, 1933) is a Japanese multimedia artist, singer, songwriter, and peace activist. Her work also encompasses performance art and filmmaking. Ono grew up i ...

, and in 2012 it was presented by

Jude Law David Jude Heyworth Law (born 29 December 1972) is an English actor. He received a British Academy Film Award, as well as nominations for two Academy Awards, two Tony Awards, and four Golden Globe Awards. In 2007, he received an Honorary C� ...

. It is a controversial event, mainly for the exhibits, such as ''

The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living ''The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living'' is an artwork created in 1991 by Damien Hirst, an English artist and a leading member of the "Young British Artists" (or YBA). It consists of a preserved tiger shark submerged ...

'' – a shark in formaldehyde by

Damien Hirst Damien Steven Hirst (; né Brennan; born 7 June 1965) is an English artist, entrepreneur, and art collector. He is one of the Young British Artists (YBAs) who dominated the art scene in the UK during the 1990s. He is reportedly the United King ...

– and ''

My Bed ''My Bed'' is a work by the English 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 a dishevelled stat ...

'', a dishevelled bed by

Tracey Emin Tracey Karima Emin, CBE, RA (; born 3 July 1963) is a British artist known for her autobiographical and confessional artwork. Emin produces work in a variety of media including drawing, painting, sculpture, film, photography, neon text and ...

. Controversy has also come from other directions, including Culture Minister

Kim Howells Kim Scott Howells (born 27 November 1946) is a Welsh Labour Party politician. He was the Member of Parliament (MP) for Pontypridd from 1989 to 2010, and held a number of ministerial positions within the Blair and Brown governments. Biography ...

criticising exhibits, a guest of honour ( Madonna) swearing, prize judge

Lynn Barber Lynn Barber (born 22 May 1944) is a British journalist who has worked for many publications, including ''The Sunday Times''. Early life Barber attended Lady Eleanor Holles School in south-west London. While she was studying for her A-Levels sh ...

writing in the press, and a speech by Sir

Nicholas Serota Sir Nicholas Andrew Serota, (born 27 April 1946) is an English art historian and curator, who served as the Director of the Tate from 1988 to 2017. He is currently Chair of Arts Council England, a role which he has held since February 2017. S ...

about the purchase of a trustee's work.

Background

The prize was named after Turner because though he is now considered one of the country's greatest artists, when he was active his work was controversial. While he is now looked at as a traditionalist, his new approach to landscape painting changed the course of art history, as many of the Turner Prize winners aspire to do. 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?""Head to Head: Turner Prize — Is It Art?"
BBC, 2 December 1999. Retrieved 22 March 2006."Turner Prize: Is It Art?"
BBC, 4 November 2002. Retrieved 22 March 2006. The shortlisted and winning artists are chosen by the prize's jury based upon a showing of their work that they have staged in the preceding year. Nominations for the prize are usually invited from the public, although these suggestions are not a significant part of the selection process according to

, one of the 2006 judges.Barber, Lynn (200
"How I suffered for art's sake"
''The Observer,'' 1 October 2006. Retrieved 15 January 2006. Public nominations were not actively sought for the prize in 2020 or 2021 "given the uncertainties of lockdown". The shortlist (usually of four or five artists) is announced in July; a show of the nominees' work opens at Tate Britain in late October; the prize itself is announced at the beginning of December. The exhibition remains on view until January. The prize is officially not judged on the Tate show, however, but on the earlier exhibition for which the artist was nominated. The exhibition and prize rely on commercial

sponsorship Sponsoring something (or someone) is the act of supporting an event, activity, person, or organization financially or through the provision of products or services. The individual or group that provides the support, similar to a benefactor, is kn ...

. By 1987, money for the prize was provided by

Drexel Burnham Lambert Drexel Burnham Lambert was an American multinational investment bank that was forced into bankruptcy in 1990 due to its involvement in illegal activities in the junk bond market, driven by senior executive Michael Milken. At its height, it was ...

; its withdrawal after its demise led to the cancellation of the prize for 1990.

, an independent television channel, stepped in for 1991, doubling the prize money to £20,000, and supporting the event with documentaries and live broadcasts of the prize-giving. Channel 4's head of arts at the time,

Waldemar Januszczak Waldemar Januszczak (born 12 January 1954) is an English art critic and television documentary producer and presenter. Formerly the art critic of ''The Guardian'', he took the same role at ''The Sunday Times'' in 1992, and has twice won the Cr ...

, was influential in helping set the format for the prize in the following years, such as arguing for the age limit of 50 that was in place from 1991 until 2017. In 2004, they were replaced as sponsors by

, doubling the prize money to £40,000, with £5,000 going to each of the shortlisted artists, and £25,000 to the winner. At a press conference for the 2019 prize, bus operator

Stagecoach A stagecoach is a four-wheeled public transport coach used to carry paying passengers and light packages on journeys long enough to need a change of horses. It is strongly sprung and generally drawn by four horses although some versions are draw ...

were announced as the lead sponsors of that year's prize, drawing questions from journalists as to whether the company was an appropriate sponsor, due to the chairman

Brian Souter Sir Brian Souter (born 5 May 1954) is a Scottish businessman. With his sister, Ann Gloag, he founded the Stagecoach Group of bus and rail operators. He also founded the bus and coach operator Megabus, the train operating company South West T ...

's support of

Section 28 Section 28 or Clause 28While going through Parliament, the amendment was constantly relabelled with a variety of clause numbers as other amendments were added to or deleted from the Bill, but by the final version of the Bill, which received ...

laws and campaigning against the legalisation of

same-sex marriage Same-sex marriage, also known as gay marriage, is the marriage of two people of the same sex or gender. marriage between same-sex couples is legally performed and recognized in 33 countries, with the most recent being Mexico, constituting ...

. It was announced the following day that Tate and

Turner Contemporary Turner Contemporary is one of the UK’s leading contemporary art galleries. Celebrating Margate’s connection with the painter J.M.W. Turner (1775 – 1851), an artist who believed that art could be an agent of change, its year-round exhibition ...

(the gallery hosting that year's prize) had mutually agreed to terminate the sponsorship with Stagecoach. 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. Former Tate Director Sir

was the Chair of the jury from the start of his tenure at the Tate in 1988 until 2006. There are conflicting reports as to how much personal sway he has over the proceedings. The media success of the Turner Prize contributed to the success of (and was in turn helped by) such late 1990s phenomena as the

Young British Artists The Young British Artists, or YBAs—also referred to as Brit artists and Britart—is a loose group of visual artists who first began to exhibit together in London in 1988. Many of the YBA artists graduated from the BA Fine Art course at Golds ...

(several of whom were nominees and winners),

Cool Britannia Cool Britannia was a name for the period of increased pride in the culture of the United Kingdom throughout the mid and second half of the 1990s, inspired by Swinging London from 1960s pop culture. This loosely coincided with John Major's conserva ...

, and exhibitions such as the

Charles Saatchi Charles Saatchi (; ar, تشارلز ساعتجي; born 9 June 1943) is an Iraqi-British businessman and the co-founder, with his brother Maurice, of advertising agency Saatchi & Saatchi. The brothers led the business – the world's largest ...

-sponsored ''

Sensation Sensation (psychology) refers to the processing of the senses by the sensory system. Sensation or sensations may also refer to: In arts and entertainment In literature *Sensation (fiction), a fiction writing mode * Sensation novel, a Britis ...

'' 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.Kennedy, Maev (2004)
"Turner prize shock: out of four serious competitors, the best artist wins"
''The Guardian'', 7 December 2004. Retrieved 15 January 2007.

Chris Ofili Christopher Ofili, (born 10 October 1968) is a British Turner Prize-winning painter who is best known for his paintings incorporating elephant dung. He was one of the Young British Artists. Since 2005, Ofili has been living and working in Tri ...

Anish Kapoor Sir Anish Mikhail Kapoor (born 12 March 1954) is a British-Indian sculptor specializing in installation art and conceptual art. Born in Mumbai, Kapoor attended the elite all-boys Indian boarding school The Doon School, before moving to the UK ...

and

Jeremy Deller Jeremy Deller (born 30 March 1966) is an English conceptual, video and installation artist. Much of Deller's work is collaborative; it has a strong political aspect, in the subjects dealt with and also the devaluation of artistic ego through t ...

later became trustees of the Tate. Some artists, including

Sarah Lucas Sarah Lucas (born 1962) is an English artist. She is part of the generation of Young British Artists who emerged during the 1990s. Her works frequently employ visual puns and bawdy humour by incorporating photography, collage and found objects. ...

and

Julian Opie Julian Opie (; born 1958) is a visual artist of the New British Sculpture movement. Life and education Opie was born in London in 1958 and raised in the city of Oxford. He attended The Dragon School and then Magdalen College School, Oxford ...

, have declined the invitation to be nominated.

Winners and nominees

History

The identity of the Turner Prize is deeply associated with

conceptual art Conceptual art, also referred to as conceptualism, is art in which the concept(s) or idea(s) involved in the work take precedence over traditional aesthetic, technical, and material concerns. Some works of conceptual art, sometimes called inst ...

. For two of its first editions, Art & Language was nominated in 1986, and

Terry Atkinson Terry Atkinson (born 1939) is an English artist. Atkinson was born in Thurnscoe, near Barnsley, Yorkshire. He lives in Leamington Spa, England with his wife, artist Sue Atkinson, with whom he has frequently collaborated. In 1967, he began to ...

, one of the founders and historical member of Art & Language, was nominated in 1985. In 2000, Tillmans was the first photographer and first non-British artist to receive the Turner Prize.

1984

Malcolm Morley Malcolm A. Morley (June 7, 1931 – June 1, 2018) was a British-American artist and painter. He was known as an artist who pioneered in varying styles, working as a photorealist and an expressionist, among many other styles. Life Morley was ...

is awarded the inaugural Turner Prize for his installation of two oil-on-canvas paintings inspired by a trip to Greece. Morley’s win sparked controversy because he had been living in New York for the previous 20 years. Other nominees included Richard Long, Richard Deacon and

Gilbert & George Gilbert Prousch, sometimes referred to as Gilbert Proesch (born 17 September 1943 in San Martin de Tor, Italy), and George Passmore (born 8 January 1942 in Plymouth, United Kingdom), are two artists who work together as the collaborative art du ...

, all of whom went on to win the Turner Prize themselves. The prize was awarded by Lord Gowrie, Minister for the Arts at the time.

1985

Howard Hodgkin Sir Gordon Howard Eliott Hodgkin (6 August 1932 – 9 March 2017) was a British painter and printmaker. His work is most often associated with abstraction. Early life Gordon Howard Eliot Hodgkin was born on 6 August 1932 in Hammersmith, Lon ...

is awarded the Turner Prize for ''A Small Thing But My Own''. Other nominees included

, sculptor Tony Cragg,

Ian Hamilton Finlay Ian Hamilton Finlay, Order of the British Empire, CBE (28 October 1925 – 27 March 2006) was a Scottish poet, writer, artist and gardener. Life Finlay was born in Nassau, Bahamas, to James Hamilton Finlay and his wife, Annie Pettigrew, bot ...

, Milena Kalinovska and painting/printing artist John Walker. The prize was awarded by celebrity presenter Sir

Richard Attenborough Richard Samuel Attenborough, Baron Attenborough, (; 29 August 192324 August 2014) was an English actor, filmmaker, and entrepreneur. He was the president of the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA) and the British Academy of Film and Televisio ...

1986

The controversial art duo

were awarded after a previous nomination in 1984. Other nominees included Art & Language (collaborative group composed of Michael Baldwin and Mel Ramsden), sculpture/printing artist

Victor Burgin Victor Burgin (born 1941) is a British artist and writer. Burgin first came to attention as a conceptual artist in the late 1960s (Harrison & Wood, 1992; Walker, 2001) and at that time was most noted for being a political photographer of the le ...

, painter

Derek Jarman Michael Derek Elworthy Jarman (31 January 1942 – 19 February 1994) was an English artist, film maker, costume designer, stage designer, writer, gardener and gay rights activist. Biography Jarman was born at the Royal Victoria Nursing Home ...

, painter Stephen McKenna and sculptor

Bill Woodrow Bill Woodrow (born 1 November 1948) is a British sculptor. Early years and education Bill Woodrow was born on 1 November 1948 near Henley-on-Thames, Oxfordshire. He received his education at the Winchester College of Art (1967–1968), the C ...

1987

Sculpture artist Richard Deacon was awarded the prize. Other nominees included graphic-style painter/printer

Patrick Caulfield Patrick Joseph Caulfield, (29 January 1936 – 29 September 2005), was an English painter and printmaker known for his bold canvases, which often incorporated elements of photorealism within a pared-down scene. Examples of his work are ''Po ...

Helen Chadwick Helen Chadwick (18 May 1953 – 15 March 1996) was a British sculptor, photographer and installation artist. In 1987, she became one of the first women artists to be nominated for the Turner Prize. Chadwick was known for "challenging stereotypi ...

, Richard Long,

Declan McGonagle Declan McGonagle is a well-known figure in Irish contemporary art, holding positions as director at the Orchard Gallery in Derry, the first director at the Irish Museum of Modern Art, and as director of the National College of Art and Design, Dub ...

and Thérèse Oulton. The prize was presented by

George Melly Alan George Heywood Melly (17 August 1926 – 5 July 2007) 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''; he also lectured on art history, with an ...

1988

Sculpture artist Tony Cragg is awarded the prize by

Alan Yentob Alan Yentob (born 11 March 1947) is a BBC presenter and retired British television executive. He stepped down as Creative Director in December 2015, and was chairman of the board of trustees of the charity Kids Company from 2003 until its coll ...

. Other nominees included figurative/portrait painter

Lucian Freud Lucian Michael Freud (; 8 December 1922 – 20 July 2011) was a British painter and draughtsman, specialising in figurative art, and is known as one of the foremost 20th-century English portraitists. He was born in Berlin, the son of Jewis ...

, Pop artist Richard Hamilton, Richard Long,

David Mach David Mach (born 18 March 1956) is a Scottish sculptor and installation artist. Life and work Mach was born in Methil, Fife. His artistic style is based on flowing assemblages of mass-produced objects. Typically these include magazines, vic ...

(graduate of

Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art & Design (DJCAD) is 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. History Attempts were made to establish an art scho ...

), printer Boyd Webb, sculptor

Alison Wilding Alison Mary Wilding OBE, RA (born 7 July 1948) is an English artist noted for her multimedia abstract sculptures. Wilding's work has been displayed in galleries internationally. Life Wilding was born in Blackburn, Lancashire. Between 1966 and ...

and Richard Wilson. 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 Long 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 (3 February 1930 – 11 April 2018) was an English painter. She is best known for abstract painting and printmaking using vibrant colours, which earned her a Turner Prize nomination. Early life and education Gillian Ayres was bo ...

, figurative painter

, Italian-born sculptor

Giuseppe Penone Giuseppe Penone (born 3 April 1947, Garessio) is an Italian artist and sculptor, known for his large-scale sculptures of trees that are interested in the link between man and the natural world.

, painter

Paula Rego Paula or PAULA may refer to: Arts and entertainment Fictional characters * Paula, in video game ''EarthBound'' * Paula, in ''The Larry Sanders Show'' * Paula Campbell (''EastEnders''), in 2003 Film and television * ''Paula'' (1915 film), a si ...

, abstract painter

Sean Scully Sean Scully (born 30 June 1945) is an Irish-born American-based artist working as a painter, printmaker, sculptor and photographer. His work is held in museum collections worldwide and he has twice been named a Turner Prize nominee. Moving fro ...

and Richard Wilson. Italian Giuseppe Penone became the first foreign artist to be nominated for the strength of his exhibitions in Britain.

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

received the prize for an untitled piece in sandstone and pigment. Other nominees included abstract painters Ian Davenport,

Fiona Rae Fiona Rae (born 10 October 1963) is a Hong Kong-born British artist. She is one of the Young British Artists (YBAs) who rose to prominence in the 1990s. Throughout her career, she has been known for having a portfolio of work that includes ele ...

and sculptor

Rachel Whiteread Dame Rachel Whiteread (born 20 April 1963) is an English artist who primarily produces sculptures, which typically take the form of casts. She was the first woman to win the annual Turner Prize in 1993. Whiteread was one of the Young British ...

1992

Grenville Davey Grenville Davey (28 April 1961 – 28 February 2022) was a British sculptor and winner of the 1992 Turner Prize. Davey was a visiting professor of the University of the Arts London and programme leader, MA Fine Art at the University of East ...

received the prize for ''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 (born 13 February 1945 in St Austell, Cornwall) is an English/Swiss sculptor, installation artist and photographer. He lives and works in Bovingdon, Hertfordshire, England. He is married to Laure Genillard who runs an art space in ...

and sculptor Alison Wilding.

1993

was the winner for ''

House A house is a single-unit residential building. It may range in complexity from a rudimentary hut to a complex structure of wood, masonry, concrete or other material, outfitted with plumbing, electrical, and heating, ventilation, and air ...

'', a concrete cast of the inside of a house on Grove Road, near Roman Road, London E3.

Jimmy Cauty James Francis Cauty (born 19 December 1956), also known as Rockman Rock, is an English artist and musician, best known as one-half of the duo The KLF, co-founder of The Orb and as the man who burnt £1 million. He is married to artist and ...

and

Bill Drummond William Ernest Drummond (born 29 April 1953) is a Scottish artist, musician, writer, and record producer. He was a co-founder of the late-1980s avant-garde pop group the KLF and its 1990s media-manipulating successor, the K Foundation, with ...

of the

K Foundation The K Foundation was an art foundation set up by Jimmy Cauty and Bill Drummond, formerly of The KLF, in 1993, following their 'retirement' from the music industry. The Foundation served as an artistic outlet for the duo's post-retirement KLF inc ...

received media coverage for the award of the " Anti-Turner Prize", £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 is a small building giving temporary protection from bad weather or danger. Shelter may also refer to: Places * Port Shelter, Hong Kong * Shelter Bay (disambiguation), various locations * Shelter Cove (disambiguation), various locat ...

. 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 painter

, Laotian-born

Vong Phaophanit Vong Phaophanit (born 1961) is an artist based in London. Phaophanit is best known for his large-scale installations, which incorporate a wide range of materials including ash, silk, rice, rubber, wax and often light. Biography Born in Savanna ...

and printer Hannah Collins.

1994

Popular sculptor

Antony Gormley Sir Antony Mark David Gormley (born 30 August 1950) is a British sculptor. His works include the '' Angel of the North'', a public sculpture in Gateshead in the north of England, commissioned in 1994 and erected in February 1998; ''Another ...

was awarded the 1994 Turner Prize. Other nominees included video artist Northern Irish-born

Willie Doherty Willie Doherty (born 1959) is an artist from Northern Ireland, who has mainly worked in photography and video. He has twice been a Turner Prize nominee. Life and work Doherty was born in Derry, Northern Ireland, and from 1978 to 1981 studied at ...

, whose work ''The Only Good One Is A Dead One'' was the first video piece to be nominated for the prize, painter

Peter Doig Peter Doig ( ; born 17 April 1959) is a Scottish painter. One of the most renowned living figurative painters, he has settled in Trinidad since 2002. In 2007, his painting ''White Canoe'' sold at Sotheby's for $11.3 million, then an auction rec ...

and multi-media

Shirazeh Houshiary Shirazeh Houshiary (born 15 January 1955) is an Iranian-born English sculptor, installation artist, and painter. She lives and works in London. Life and work Shirazeh Houshiary was born on 15 January 1955 in Shiraz, Iran. She left her native c ...

1995

was awarded the 1995 Turner Prize, which included his notorious sculpture ''Mother and Child, Divided''. Other nominees included Lebanese-born installation/video artist

Mona Hatoum Mona Hatoum ( ar, منى حاطوم; born 1952) is a British-Palestinian multimedia and installation artist who lives in London. Biography Mona Hatoum was born in 1952 in Beirut, Lebanon, to Palestinian parents. Although born in Lebanon, Hatoum ...

, abstract painter

Callum Innes Callum Innes (born 1962) is a Scottish abstract painter, a former Turner Prize nominee and winner of the Jerwood Painting Prize. He lives and works in Edinburgh, Scotland. Early life and education Callum Innes was born in Edinburgh. He studied ...

and multi-media artist

Mark Wallinger Mark Wallinger (born 25 May 1959) is a British artist. Having previously been nominated for the Turner Prize in 1995, he won in 2007 for his installation ''State Britain''. His work ''Ecce Homo'' (1999–2000) was the first piece to occupy the ...

1996

Douglas Gordon Douglas Gordon (born 20 September 1966) is a Scottish artist. He won the Turner Prize in 1996, the Premio 2000 at the 47th Venice Biennale in 1997 and the Hugo Boss Prize in 1998. He lives and works in Berlin, Germany. Work Much of Gordon's ...

becomes the first video artist to win the Turner Prize. Other nominees included photographer Craigie Horsfield, painter

Gary Hume Gary Stewart Hume (born 9 May 1962) is an English artist. Hume's work is strongly identified with the YBA who came to prominence in the early 1990s. Hume lives and works in London and Accord, New York.

and installation artist Simon Patterson.

1997

The winner,

Gillian Wearing Gillian Wearing CBE, RA (born 10 December 1963) is an English conceptual artist, one of the Young British Artists, and winner of the 1997 Turner Prize. In 2007 Wearing was elected as lifetime member of the Royal Academy of Arts in London. Her ...

, 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

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 Timothy John Marlow (born 1962) is a British writer, broadcaster and art historian who is the Director and Chief Executive of the Design Museum,Hannah McGivern (October 7, 2019)Tim Marlow leaves Royal Academy of Arts to head London’s Design Mu ...

and also included

Roger Scruton Sir Roger Vernon Scruton (; 27 February 194412 January 2020) was an English philosopher and writer who specialised in aesthetics and political philosophy, particularly in the furtherance of traditionalist conservative views. Editor from 1982 ...

Richard Cork Richard Cork (born 25 March 1947) 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 e ...

David Sylvester Anthony David Bernard Sylvester (21 September 1924 – 19 June 2001) 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 particula ...

and

Norman Rosenthal Sir Norman Rosenthal (born 8 November 1944) is a British independent curator and art historian. From 1970 to 1974 he was Exhibitions Officer at Brighton Museum and Art Gallery. In 1974 he became a curator at the Institute of Contemporary Arts, ...

. Emin wrote about the incident in her 2005 book ''Strangeland'', describing her shock at reading ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper A newspaper is a periodical publication containing written information about current events and is often typed in black ink with a white or gray background. Newspapers can cover a wide ...

'' writeup the following day. This was the only time in history with an all-female shortlist including sculptor Christine Borland,

Angela Bulloch Angela Bulloch (born 1966 in Rainy River, Ontario, Canada), is an artist who often works with sound and installation; she is recognised as one of the Young British Artists. Bulloch lives and works in Berlin. Life and career Bulloch studied at Go ...

and sculptor

Cornelia Parker Cornelia Ann Parker (born 14 July 1956) is an English visual artist, best known for her sculpture and installation art.Chris Ofili Christopher Ofili, (born 10 October 1968) is a British Turner Prize-winning painter who is best known for his paintings incorporating elephant dung. He was one of the Young British Artists. Since 2005, Ofili has been living and working in Tri ...

'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."Elephant dung artist scoops award"
BBC, 3 December 1998. Retrieved 9 April 2008. 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" is a reggae song by Bob Marley and the Wailers. The song was recorded in 1974 and released on the studio album '' Natty Dread''. The live recording of this song from the 1975 album '' Live!'' was released as a single and i ...

'' is based on the

murder of Stephen Lawrence Stephen Lawrence (13 September 1974 – 22 April 1993) was a black British teenager from Plumstead, southeast London, who was murdered in a racially motivated attack while waiting for a bus in Well Hall Road, Eltham on the evening of 22 Apri ...

, killed in a race attack. The jury included musician

Neil Tennant Neil Francis Tennant (born 10 July 1954) is an English musician, singer, songwriter and music journalist, and co-founder of the synth-pop duo Pet Shop Boys, which he formed with Chris Lowe in 1981. He was a journalist for ''Smash Hits'', and ...

, author

Marina Warner Dame Marina Sarah Warner, (born 9 November 1946) is an English historian, mythographer, art critic, novelist and short story writer. She is known for her many non-fiction books relating to feminism and myth. She has written for many publicati ...

, curator Fumio Nanjo and

British Council The British Council is a British organisation specialising in international cultural and educational opportunities. It works in over 100 countries: promoting a wider knowledge of the United Kingdom and the English language (and the Welsh la ...

officer Ann Gallagher, chaired by Nicholas Serota. Other nominees included installation artist Tacita Dean, sculptor Cathy de Monchaux and video artist

Sam Taylor-Wood Samantha Louise Taylor-Johnson OBE (née Taylor-Wood; 4 March 1967) is a British filmmaker and photographer. Her directorial feature film debut was 2009's '' Nowhere Boy'', a film based on the childhood experiences of The Beatles songwriter a ...

. In addition to being the first black person to win the prize, Ofili also became the first painter to win since Howard Hodgkin in 1985.

1999

The Prize was given to

Steve McQueen Terrence Stephen McQueen (March 24, 1930November 7, 1980) was an American actor. His antihero persona, emphasized during the height of the counterculture of the 1960s, made him a top box-office draw for his films of the late 1950s, 1960s, and 1 ...

for his video based on a Buster Keaton film. Some media attention was given to

's exhibit ''

,'' 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 Cai Yuan and Jian Jun Xi are two Chinese-born artists, based in Britain, who work together under the name Mad For Real. They have enacted (unofficial) events at the Venice Biennale and the Turner Prize, where, in 1999, they jumped onto Tracey Emin ...

, 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''. Other nominees included

Steven Pippin Steven Pippin (born 1960 at Redhill, Surrey) is an English photographer and installation artist. Pippin works with converted or improvised photographic equipment and kinetic sculptures which are often based on physical models and are metaphors f ...

and collaborative sibling duo Jane and Louise Wilson.

2000

02 wolfgang-tillmans koeln gal buchholz 120107

The prize was won by

Wolfgang Tillmans Wolfgang Tillmans (born 16 August 1968) is a German photographer. His diverse body of work is distinguished by observation of his surroundings and an ongoing investigation of the photographic medium’s foundations. Tillmans was the first photog ...

. Other entries included a large painting by Glenn Brown based very closely on a science fiction illustration published some years previously. Michael Raedecker and

Tomoko Takahashi Tomoko Takahashi is a Japanese artist. She was born in Tokyo in 1966 and has based in London since the early 1990s. She studied at Tama Art University, Goldsmiths College and the Slade School of Fine Art. Takahashi's main medium is install ...

were also nominated. 2000 Stuckist Turner demo (1)

The Stuckist 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

", 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 Henri-Robert-Marcel Duchamp (, , ; 28 July 1887 – 2 October 1968) was a French painter, sculptor, chess player, and writer whose work is associated with Cubism, Dada, and conceptual art. Duchamp is commonly regarded, along with Pablo Picasso ...

Award for the destruction of artistic integrity". ''The Guardian'' announced the winner of Turner Prize with the headline "Turner Winner Riles the Stuckists"."Turner Winner Riles the Stuckists", The Guardian, 29 November 2000
Retrieved 26 March 2000.

2001

Photograph of Jacqueline Crofton by Charles Thomson

Controversy was caused by winner

Martin Creed Martin Creed (born 21 October 1968) is a British artist, composer and performer. He won the Turner Prize in 2001 for exhibitions during the preceding year, with the jury praising his audacity for exhibiting a single installation, '' Work No. ...

's installation '' Work No. 227: The lights going on and off'' consisting of an empty room whose lighting periodically came on and went off. Artist Jacqueline Crofton threw eggs at the walls of the room containing Creed's work as a protest.Youngs, Ian (200
"The art of Turner protests", BBC
www.bbc.co.uk, 31 October 2002. Retrieved 8 January 2007 At the prize ceremony, Madonna 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 pm watershed 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 photographer

Richard Billingham Richard Billingham (born 25 September 1970) is an English photographer and artist, film maker and art teacher. His work has mostly concerned his family, the place he grew up in the West Midlands, but also landscapes elsewhere. Billingham is bes ...

, video/installation artist (and now film director)

Isaac Julien Sir Isaac Julien (born 21 February 1960Annette Kuhn"Julien, Isaac (1960–)" BFI Screen Online.) is a British installation artist, filmmaker, and distinguished professor of the arts at UC Santa Cruz. Early life Julien was born in the East End ...

and installation artist Mike Nelson.

2002

The media focused on a large display by

Fiona Banner Fiona Banner (born 1966), also known as The Vanity Press is a British artist. Her work encompasses sculpture, drawing, installation and text, and demonstrates a long-standing fascination with the emblem of fighter aircraft and their role within cul ...

whose wall-size text piece, ''Arsewoman in Wonderland,'' described a

pornographic Pornography (often shortened to porn or porno) is the portrayal of sexual subject matter for the exclusive purpose of sexual arousal. Primarily intended for adults,

film in detail. ''

'' asked, "It's art. But is it porn?" calling in "Britain's biggest porn star",

Ben Dover Simon James Honey (born 23 May 1956), better known as Ben Dover, is an English pornographic actor, director and producer. He has also worked under several other pseudonyms including Steve Perry as producer and Lindsay Honey as an actor and mus ...

, to comment. Culture Minister

made a scathing criticism of the exhibits as "conceptual bullshit".

Prince Charles Charles III (Charles Philip Arthur George; born 14 November 1948) is King of the United Kingdom and the 14 other Commonwealth realms. He was the longest-serving heir apparent and Prince of Wales and, at age 73, became the oldest person to ...

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 is a pseudonymous England-based street artist, political activist and film director whose real name and identity remain unconfirmed and the subject of speculation. Active since the 1990s, his satirical street art and subversive epigram ...

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 (born Keith Thomas Bower,Keith Tyson

. Other nominees included

Liam Gillick Liam Gillick (born 1964, Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire) is a British artist who lives and works in New York City.

and Catherine Yass.

2003

800px-Alan Yentob and Grayson Perry crop more

Jake and Dinos Chapman Iakovos "Jake" Chapman (born 1966) and Konstantinos "Dinos" Chapman (born 1962) are British visual artists, often known as the Chapman Brothers. Their subject matter tries to be deliberately shocking, including, in 2008, a series of works that ...

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. Attention was also given to

Grayson Perry Grayson Perry (born 1960) is an English contemporary artist, writer and broadcaster. He is known for his ceramic vases, tapestries, and cross-dressing, as well as his observations of the contemporary arts scene, and for dissecting British "pr ...

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, 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 () is an international art movement founded in 1999 by Billy Childish and Charles Thomson to promote figurative painting as opposed to conceptual art.Willie Doherty Willie Doherty (born 1959) is an artist from Northern Ireland, who has mainly worked in photography and video. He has twice been a Turner Prize nominee. Life and work Doherty was born in Derry, Northern Ireland, and from 1978 to 1981 studied at ...

(his second nomination since 1994) and

Anya Gallaccio Anya Gallaccio (born 1963) is a British artist, who creates site-specific, minimalist installations and often works with organic matter (including chocolate, sugar, flowers and ice). Her use of organic materials results in natural processes ...

2004

The media focused on a large computer simulation of a former hideout of Osama bin Laden by Ben Langlands and Nikki Bell, as well as the fact that one of their exhibits, a film in a

Kabul Kabul (; ps, , ; , ) is the capital and largest city of Afghanistan. Located in the eastern half of the country, it is also a municipality, forming part of the Kabul Province; it is administratively divided into 22 municipal districts. Ac ...

courtroom was withdrawn as it related to an ongoing trial of a suspected Afghan warlord. Betting favourite

won the prize with his film ''Memory Bucket'', documenting both

George W. Bush George Walker Bush (born July 6, 1946) is an American politician who served as the 43rd president of the United States from 2001 to 2009. A member of the Republican Party, Bush family, and son of the 41st president George H. W. Bush, he ...

's hometown

Crawford, Texas Crawford is a town located in western McLennan County, Texas, United States. Crawford is part of the Waco Metropolitan Statistical Area. As of the 2020 census, the town had a total population of 887. The town was incorporated on August 12, 1897. ...

– and the siege in Waco nearby. 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 Kutluğ Ataman (born 1961 in Istanbul Turkey) is an acclaimed Turkish-American contemporary artist and feature filmmaker. Ataman's films are known for their strong characterization and humanity. His early art works examine the ways in which peo ...

and installation/photograph/sculpture artist

Yinka Shonibare Yinka Shonibare (born 9 August 1962), is a British-Nigerian artist living in the United Kingdom. His work explores cultural identity, colonialism and post-colonialism within the contemporary context of globalisation. A hallmark of his art is ...

, who was tipped as the public's favourite among the other nominees.

2005

A great deal was made in the press about the winning entry by

Simon Starling Simon Starling (born 1967) is an English conceptual artist and won the Turner Prize in 2005. Early life Simon Starling was born in 1967 in Epsom, Surrey. He studied photography and art at Maidstone College of Art from 1986 to 1987, then at ...

, which was a shed that he had converted into a boat, sailed down the

River Rhine ), Surselva, Graubünden, Switzerland , source1_coordinates= , source1_elevation = , source2 = Rein Posteriur/Hinterrhein , source2_location = Paradies Glacier, Graubünden, Switzerland , source2_coordinates= , so ...

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 Lindon Lammy (born 19 July 1972) is an English politician serving as Shadow Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs since 2021. A member of the Labour Party, he has been Member of Parliament (MP) for Tottenh ...

. 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 Cenacle (from the Latin , "dining room"), also known as the Upper Room (from the Koine Greek and , both meaning "upper room"), is a room in Mount Zion in Jerusalem, just outside the Old City walls, traditionally held to be the site of th ...

''.Notebook by Andrew Marr (2nd item)
The Daily Telegraph, 7 December 2005 Retrieved 24 March 2006
''The Guardian'', 6 December 2005. Retrieved 24 March 2006.

2006

The nominees were announced on 16 May 2006. The exhibition of nominees' work opened at Tate Britain on 3 October.

, the celebrity announcer chosen for the year, declared

Tomma Abts Tomma Abts (born 26 December 1967) is a German-born visual artist known for her abstract oil paintings. Abts won the Turner Prize in 2006.

the winner on 4 December 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

. Under the

Freedom of Information Act Freedom of Information Act may refer to the following legislations in different jurisdictions which mandate the national government to disclose certain data to the general public upon request: * Freedom of Information Act 1982, the Australian act * ...

, ''

The Sunday Telegraph ''The Sunday Telegraph'' is a British broadsheet newspaper, founded in February 1961 and published by the Telegraph Media Group, a division of Press Holdings. It is the sister paper of '' The Daily Telegraph'', also published by the Tele ...

'' obtained emails between the Tate and judge

, 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.Hastings, Chris (2006)
"Shows missed by judges, questions over artists… It must be the Turner Prize"
''The Sunday Telegraph'', 30 April 2006. Retrieved 20 May 2006. More controversy ensued when Barber wrote in ''

The Observer ''The Observer'' is a British newspaper Sunday editions, published on Sundays. It is a sister paper to ''The Guardian'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', whose parent company Guardian Media Group, Guardian Media Group Limited acquired it in 1993. ...

'' 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, ''

'' :Margot Heller, director,

South London Gallery The South London Gallery, founded 1891, is a public-funded gallery of contemporary art in Camberwell, London. Until 1992, it was known as the South London Art Gallery, and nowadays the acronym SLG is often used. Margot Heller became its direc ...

: Matthew Higgs, Director and Chief Curator, White Columns, New York :Andrew Renton, writer and Director of Curating,

Goldsmiths College Goldsmiths, University of London, officially the Goldsmiths' College, is a constituent research university of the University of London in England. It was originally founded in 1891 as The Goldsmiths' Technical and Recreative Institute by the Wor ...

, director, Tate and Chairman of the Jury

2007

The winner of the £25,000 Prize was

.Higgins, Charlotte
"Bear man walks away with Turner Prize"
''

'', 3 December 2007. Retrieved 3 December 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'', which recreated all the objects in

Brian Haw Brian William Haw (7 January 1949 – 18 June 2011) was an English protester and peace campaigner who lived for almost ten years in a peace camp in London's Parliament Square from 2001, in a protest against UK and US foreign policy. He beg ...

's anti-war display in

Parliament Square Parliament Square is a square at the northwest end of the Palace of Westminster in the City of Westminster in central London. Laid out in the 19th century, it features a large open green area in the centre with trees to its west, and it contai ...

, 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 Lee Hopper (May 17, 1936 – May 29, 2010) was an American actor, filmmaker and photographer. He attended the Actors Studio, made his first television appearance in 1954, and soon after appeared in '' Giant'' (1956). In the next ten year ...

. For the first time in its 23-year history, the Turner Prize was held outside London, in

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 Corpo ...

(in support of

Liverpool Liverpool is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the List of English districts by population, 10th largest English district by population and its E ...

being the European Capital of Culture in 2008),following a suggestion by gallery worker Jason Richardson. Concurrently there was an exhibition of previous winners at Tate Britain in London. Unlike recent years, Sir

was not the jury chairman; instead, the chairman was Christoph Grunenberg, the Director of Tate Liverpool. The panel was:"Turner Prize 07"
tate.org. Retrieved 21 May 2007 :Fiona Bradley, Director of the Fruitmarket Gallery, Edinburgh : Michael Bracewell, critic and writer :Thelma Golden, Director and Chief Curator of the Studio Museum, Harlem :

Miranda Sawyer Miranda Caroline Sawyer (born January 1967) is an English author, journalist and broadcaster. Education and early life Sawyer was born in Bristol and grew up in Wilmslow, Cheshire with her brother Toby, who is an actor. Sawyer was educated at ...

, writer and broadcaster :Christoph Grunenberg, Director of Tate Liverpool (Chairman of the Jury) The nominees were: :

for his Tate Britain installation, '' State Britain'' :

Nathan Coley Nathan Coley (born 1967 in Glasgow, Scotland, where he currently lives and works) is a contemporary British artist who was shortlisted for the Turner Prize in 2007 and has held both solo and group exhibitions internationally, as well as his wo ...

, a Glasgow artist, who makes installations based on buildings :

Zarina Bhimji Zarina Bhimji (born 1963) is a Ugandan Indian photographer, based in London. She was nominated for the Turner Prize in 2007, exhibited at Documenta 11 in 2002, and is represented in the public collections of Tate, the Museum of Contemporary Art in ...

, a Ugandan Asian photographer and filmmaker : Mike Nelson, an installation artist Nelson and Wallinger had both previously been nominated for the prize. The

Stuckists Stuckism () is an international art movement founded in 1999 by Billy Childish and Charles Thomson to promote figurative painting as opposed to conceptual art.demonstrating 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 re-enacted previous Stuckist demonstrations in protest against their own practice at the Royal Standard Turner Prize Extravaganza.

2008

Mark Leckey Mark Leckey (born 1964) is a British contemporary artist. His found object art and video pieces, which incorporate themes of nostalgia and anxiety, and draw on elements of pop culture, span several works and exhibitions. In particular, he is ...

was the winner of the Turner Prize of 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 ''

frieze In architecture, the frieze is the wide central section part of an entablature and may be plain in the Ionic or Doric order, or decorated with bas-reliefs. Paterae are also usually used to decorate friezes. Even when neither columns nor ...

'', Daniel Birnbaum, rector of the

Städelschule The Städelschule (), Staatliche Hochschule für Bildende Künste, is a tertiary school of art in Frankfurt am Main, Germany. It accepts about 20 students each year from 500 applicants, and has a total of approximately 150 students of visual a ...

international art academy, Frankfurt, architect

David Adjaye Sir David Frank Adjaye (born 22 September 1966) is a Ghanaian-British architect. He is known for having designed many notable buildings around the world, including the National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington, D ...

, and Suzanne Cotter, senior curator,

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. The gallery presents exhibitions of modern and contemporary art. It has a national and internationa ...

.Gayford, Martin
"Leckey, Wilkes, Islam, Macuga on U.K. Turner Prize Shortlist "
, bloomberg.com, 13 May 2008. Retrieved 14 May 2008. 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 ( bn, রুনা ইসলাম; born 10 December 1970) is a Bangladeshi-born British visual artist and filmmaker based in London. She was a nominee for the 2008 Turner Prize. She is principally known for her film works. Early lif ...

Goshka Macuga Goshka Macuga (; born 1967 in Warsaw, Poland as Małgorzata 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. Martins Colle ...

, and Cathy Wilkes; the Prize exhibition opened at Tate Britain on 30 September and the winner was announced on 1 December.

2009

The winner of the £25,000 Prize was Richard Wright. Stephen Deuchar again chaired the jury. The other shortlisted artists were

Enrico David Enrico David (born 1966, Ancona, Italy) is an artist based in London. He works in painting, drawing, sculpture and installation, at times employing traditional craft techniques. In the 1990s he garnered acclaim for creating monumental embroidered ...

Roger Hiorns Roger Hiorns (born 1975) is a British Contemporary artist based in London. His primary media is sculpture and installation, using a wide variety of materials, including metals, wood and plastics. He also works in the media of video and photograp ...

and Lucy Skaer.

2010

The winner was

Susan Philipsz Susan Mary Philipsz OBE (born 1965) is a Scottish artist who won the 2010 Turner Prize. Originally a sculptor, she is best known for her sound installations. She records herself singing a cappella versions of songs which are replayed over a pu ...

who graduated from

Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art & Design Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art & Design (DJCAD) is 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. History Attempts were made to establish an art scho ...

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 ( ; sco, Glesca or ; gd, Glaschu ) is the most populous city in Scotland and the fourth-most populous city in the United Kingdom, as well as being the 27th largest city by population in Europe. In 2020, it had an estimated pop ...

in which she sang folklorised versions of the

sea shanty A sea shanty, chantey, or chanty () is a genre of traditional folk song that was once commonly sung as a work song to accompany rhythmical labor aboard large merchant sailing vessels. The term ''shanty'' most accurately refers to a specific st ...

"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,

Angela de la Cruz Angela may refer to: Places * Angela, Montana * Angela Lake, in Volusia County, Florida * Lake Angela, in Lyon Township, Oakland County, Michigan * Lake Angela, the reservoir impounded by the source dam of the South Yuba River Fiction * An ...

, and the Otolith Group.

2011

The 2011 Turner Prize took place in Gateshead at the

Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art (also known simply as (the) Baltic, stylised as BALTIC) is a centre for contemporary art located on the south bank of the River Tyne in Gateshead, Tyne and Wear, England. It hosts a frequently changing varie ...

, away from the Tate in London for the first time since 2007. The winner was

Martin Boyce Martin Boyce (born 1967) is a Scottish sculptor inspired by early 20th century modernism. Boyce was born in Hamilton, South Lanarkshire and educated at Holy Cross High School in Hamilton. He studied at the Glasgow School of Art, graduating with ...

. The other nominees were

Karla Black Karla Black (born 1972) is a Scottish sculptor who creates abstract three-dimensional artworks that explore the physicality of materials as a way of understanding and communicating the world around us. In 2011, Black was nominated for the Turn ...

, Hilary Lloyd and George Shaw. The prize ceremony was interrupted by the international streaker Mark Roberts who was hired by the artist Benedikt Dichgans. 149,770 people visited the exhibition in Gateshead making it the most visited Turner Prize exhibition ever.

2012

The nominees for the 2012 prize were

Spartacus Chetwynd Monster Chetwynd (born Alalia Chetwynd, 1973, best known as Spartacus Chetwynd and Marvin Gaye Chetwynd) is a British artist known for reworkings of iconic moments from cultural history in improvised performances. In 2012, she was nominated for ...

Luke Fowler Luke Fowler (born 1978) is an artist, 16mm filmmaker and musician based in Glasgow. He studied printmaking at Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design in Dundee. He creates cinematic collages that have often been linked to the British F ...

(graduate of

Paul Noble Paul Noble (born 1963) is a British visual artist. Life and career Noble studied at Humberside College of Higher Education (1983–1986) and Sunderland Polytechnic (1982–1983), before moving to London in 1987. He was one of the five foun ...

and Elizabeth Price. Former Talulah Gosh member Elizabeth Price was awarded the £25,000 prize.

2013

The 2013 Turner Prize were held at

Ebrington Square Ebrington Square is a public space and tourist attraction in Derry, Northern Ireland built upon the former army parade ground at Ebrington Barracks. Although located in the Waterside area of Derry, it is connected to the city centre on the west ...

Derry Derry, officially Londonderry (), is the second-largest city in Northern Ireland and the fifth-largest city on the island of Ireland. The name ''Derry'' is an anglicisation of the Old Irish name (modern Irish: ) meaning 'oak grove'. Th ...

, the first-time the prize was awarded outside England, as part of the

UK City of Culture UK City of Culture is a designation given to a City status in the United Kingdom, city (or a Local government in the United Kingdom, local area from 2025) in the United Kingdom for a period of one calendar year, during which the successful bid ...

celebrations. The prize jury was chaired by

Penelope Curtis Penelope Curtis (born 1961) is a British art historian and curator. Fom 2015 to 2020 she was the director of Lisbon's Museu Calouste Gulbenkian, and from 2010 to 2015 director of Tate Britain. She is the author of several monographs on sculptur ...

, Director of Tate Britain. The nominees for the 2013 award were

Laure Prouvost Laure Prouvost (born 1978) is a French artist living and working in Antwerp, Belgium. She won the 2013 Turner Prize. In 2019, she represented France at the Venice Biennale with the multi-media work "The Deep Blue Sea Surrounding You". Career ...

Tino Sehgal Tino is an Italian name or nickname, often a diminutive of the names Agostino, Costantino, Martino, Antonino, Valentino, Giustino, Sabatino, Faustino, and other names ending in -tino. Tino may refer to: People Given name * Tino Ausenda (191 ...

David Shrigley David John Shrigley (born 17 September 1968) is a British visual artist. He lived and worked in Glasgow, Scotland for 27 years before moving to Brighton, England in 2015. Early life and education Shrigley was born 17 September 1968 in Maccles ...

, and

Lynette Yiadom-Boakye Lynette Yiadom-Boakye (born 1977) is a British painter and writer. She is best known for her portraits of imaginary subjects, or ones derived from found objects, who are painted in muted colours. Her work has contributed to the renaissance in pai ...

. The winner of the 2013 prize was

2014

The nominees for the 2014 award were Duncan Campbell, Ciara Phillips, James Richards and

Tris Vonna-Michell Tris Vonna-Michell (born 1982) is a British artist who performs narratives and constructs installations through the layering of these narratives, photographs and mementos, presented using antiquated technologies and slide projection. Vonna-Michel ...

. The winner of the 2014 prize was Duncan Campbell.

2015

The nominees for the 2015 award were

Bonnie Camplin Bonnie Camplin (born 1970) is a British artist and a fine art lecturer at Goldsmiths College, London. She was a 2015 Turner Prize nominee, nominated for the exhibition ''The Military Industrial Complex'', which was shown at the South London Gal ...

Janice Kerbel Janice Kerbel (born 1969) is a British artist. Biography Kerbel graduated from Goldsmiths College in 1996. In 2011 she won the Paul Hamlyn Foundation Award for artists. She works at Goldsmiths, University of London as a Reader in Fine Art. S ...

Nicole Wermers Nicole Wermers (born 1971) is a German artist, born in Emsdetten, and based in London. Education Wermers studied at the Academy of Fine Arts of Hamburg (Hochschule für bildende Künste Hamburg) from 1991 to 1997 and received an MFA from Centr ...

, and Assemble. The winner of the 2015 prize was Assemble. The exhibition was held in Glasgow, Scotland, in the Tramway, a contemporary art, theatre and dance space.

2016

The nominees for the 2016 award were Michael Dean,

Anthea Hamilton Anthea Hamilton (born 1978) is a British artist who graduated from the Royal College of Art and was one of four shortlisted for the 2016 Turner Prize and responsible for the show's most popular exhibit, Project For Door. She is known for creatin ...

, Helen Marten, and Josephine Pryde. The winner was Helen Marten.

2017

The nominees for the 2017 award were

Lubaina Himid Lubaina Himid (born 1954) is a British artist and curator. She is a professor of contemporary art at the University of Central Lancashire.Rosalind Nashashibi Layla Rosalind Nashashibi (born 1973) is a Palestinian-English artist based in London. Nashashibi works mainly with 16 mm film but also makes paintings and prints. Her work often deals with everyday observations merged with mythological elemen ...

, Hurvin Anderson, and Andrea Büttner. The exhibition was held in Hull, at the

Ferens Art Gallery The Ferens Art Gallery is an art gallery in the English city of Kingston upon Hull. The site and money for the gallery were donated to the city by Thomas Ferens, after whom it is named. The architects were S. N. Cooke and E. C. Dav ...

, as part of Hull UK City of Culture 2017. The winner was

Lubaina Himid Lubaina Himid (born 1954) is a British artist and curator. She is a professor of contemporary art at the University of Central Lancashire.Forensic Architecture Forensic Architecture is a multidisciplinary research group based at Goldsmiths, University of London that uses architectural techniques and technologies to investigate cases of state violence and violations of human rights around the world. The ...

Naeem Mohaiemen Naeem Mohaiemen (born 1969) uses film, photography, installation, and essays to research South Asia's postcolonial markers (the Indo-Pakistani War of 1947–1948 and the Bangladesh Liberation War of 1971). His projects on the 1970s revolutionary l ...

Charlotte Prodger Charlotte Prodger (born 1974) is a British artist and film-maker who works with "moving image, printed image, sculpture and writing". Her films include ''Statics'' (2021), ''SaF05'' (2019), ''LHB'' (2017), ''Passing as a great grey owl'' (2017), ...

, and

Luke Willis Thompson Luke Willis Thompson (born 1988) is a New Zealand artist of Fijian and European descent, currently working primarily in film. He lives in London. Education Thompson was born in Auckland. He completed a BFA (2009) and MFA (2010) at the Elam School ...

. All four were video artists. The shortlist was drawn up by writer and critic Oliver Basciano, Elena Filipovic, director,

Kunsthalle Basel Kunsthalle Basel is a contemporary art gallery in Basel, Switzerland. As Switzerland's oldest and still most active institution for contemporary art, Kunsthalle Basel forms a vital part of Basel's cultural centre and is located next to the city's ...

; Lisa Le Feuvre, executive director of Holt/Smithson Foundation; and novelist Tom McCarthy. The winner was

2019

The 2019 award was hosted at the

in Margate, Kent. The shortlisted artists were

Lawrence Abu Hamdan Lawrence Abu Hamdan (born 1985, in Amman) is a contemporary artist based in Beirut. His work looks into the political effects of listening, using various kinds of audio to explore its effects on human rights and law. Because of his work with sou ...

, Helen Cammock, Oscar Murillo and Tai Shani, who were jointly awarded the prize as a collective following their request to be considered as a single group.

2020

It was announced in May, at a late stage in judging, that this year's award would be replaced by a

bursary A bursary is a monetary award made by any educational institution or funding authority to individuals or groups. It is usually awarded to enable a student to attend school, university or college when they might not be able to, otherwise. Some aw ...

for 10 artists who would be announced in July due to the COVID-19 pandemic in the United Kingdom. The 10 artists to receive bursaries were: Oreet Ashery,

Liz Johnson Artur Liz Johnson Artur (born 1964) is a Ghanaian-Russian photographer based in London, England. Her work documents the lives of black people from across the African Diaspora. Her work strives to display and celebrate the normal, the vibrant and the s ...

, Shawanda Corbett, Jamie Crewe, Sean Edwards, Sidsel Meineche Hansen, Ima-Abasi Okon, Imran Perretta,

Alberta Whittle Alberta Whittle (born 1980, Bridgetown, Barbados) is a Barbadian-Scottish multidisciplinary artist who works across media: film, sculpture, print, installation and performance. She lives and works in Glasgow. She was the winner of the Margaret T ...

, and the political arts organisation Arika.

2021

The 2021 nominees were Array Collective, Black Obsidian Sound System, Cooking Sections, Gentle/Radical, and Project Art Works. Array Collective were announced as the winners on 1 December 2021.

2022

On 12 April 2022, it was announced that the nominees for the prize were Heather Phillipson, Ingrid Pollard,

Veronica Ryan Veronica Maudlyn Ryan (born 1956 in Plymouth, Montserrat) is a Montserrat-born British sculptor. She moved to London with her parents when she was an infant and now lives between New York and Bristol. In December 2022, Ryan won the Turner Priz ...

, and

Sin Wai Kin Sin Wai Kin (formerly Victoria Sin, born 1991) is a Canadian visual artist who uses "speculative fiction within drag performance, moving image, writing and print to refigure attitudes towards gender, sexuality and historical discourses of identity ...

. Later that same month, on April 15, it was announced that the Turner Prize for 2023 will be awarded at the Towner Eastbourne, and it will be the first time that this event will be held in Sussex.

Public perception

In favour

*Critic

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-Porter Janet Vera Street-Porter (''née'' Bull; born 27 December 1946) is an English broadcaster, journalist, writer, and media personality. She began her career as a fashion writer and columnist at the ''Daily Mail'' and was later appointed fashion e ...

condemned the Stuckists' "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 Thornton Sarah L. Thornton (born 1965) is a writer, ethnographer and sociologist of culture. Thornton has authored three books and many articles about artists, the art market, technology and design, the history of music technology, dance clubs, raves, ...

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 ''

'', said that the Turner Prize should be considered a barometer for the mood of the nation.

Opposed

*The ''

Evening Standard The ''Evening Standard'', formerly ''The Standard'' (1827–1904), also known as the ''London Evening Standard'', is a local free daily newspaper in London, England, published Monday to Friday in tabloid format. In October 2009, after be ...

'' critic

Brian Sewell Brian Alfred Christopher Bushell Sewell (; 15 July 1931 – 19 September 2015) was an English art critic. He wrote for the ''Evening Standard'' and had an acerbic view of conceptual art and the Turner Prize. ''The Guardian'' described him as ...

wrote "The annual farce of the Turner Prize is now as inevitable in November as is the pantomime at Christmas". *Critic

Matthew Collings Matthew Collings (born 1955) is a British art critic, writer, broadcaster, and artist. He is married to Emma Biggs, with whom he collaborates on art works. Education Born in London in 1955, Collings studied at Byam Shaw School of Art, and Golds ...

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 Lee 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 Gallery Lisson Gallery is a contemporary art gallery with locations in London and New York, founded by Nicholas Logsdail in 1967. The gallery represents over 50 artists such as Art & Language, Ryan Gander, Carmen Herrera, Richard Long, John Latham, ...

, and others closely linked to the collector

Jay Jopling Jeremy Michael "Jay" Jopling (born June 1963) is an English art dealer and gallerist. He is the founder of White Cube. Early life Jay Jopling is the son of Michael Jopling, Baron Jopling, a Conservative politician who served for some time as ...

Maureen Paley Maureen Paley (born 1953Sleeman, Elizabeth (ed.) ''The International Who's Who of Women'' (London and New York: Routledge, 2002), p. 431. Entry on Paley available as snippet viehere/ref>) is the American owner of a contemporary art gallery in B ...

and

Victoria Miro Victoria Marion Miro (born 1 July 1945) is a British art dealer, "one of the grandes dames of the Britart scene"Husband, Stuart"Go see... the Victoria Miro gallery" ''The Observer'', 3 December 2000. Retrieved 27 September 2013. and founder of th ...

. The

has had the most success of any gallery with the Turner Prize from 1991 to 2004. *In 2002, Culture Minister and former art student

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

gave an " Anti-Turner Prize" of £40,000 for the "worst artist in Britain" with the same short list as the official prize: the winner of both prizes was

. In 1999, Trevor Prideaux organized the ongoing

Turnip Prize The Turnip Prize is a spoof UK award satirising the Tate Gallery's Turner Prize by rewarding deliberately bad modern art. It was started as a joke in 1999, but gained national media attention and inspired similar prizes. Credit is given for entries ...

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 () is an international art movement founded in 1999 by Billy Childish and Charles Thomson to promote figurative painting as opposed to conceptual art."A custard pie for Serota as Turner Prize winner named"
''

The Daily Telegraph ''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a national British daily broadsheet newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed across the United Kingdom and internationally. It was f ...

'', 9 December 2002. Retrieved 27 March 2006

References

External links

The Turner Prize official website, Tate
''The Guardian''
Turner Prize, Glasgow University projectMartin Herbert on the Turner Prize''Tate Magazine'' (2002) feature, including statistical analysisBBC News coverage of some 2009 artwork (shortlist)Cue card
used by presenter

during televised 1998 award ceremony {{Authority control Awards established in 1984 Early career awards Contemporary art awards British contemporary art Culture in London Festivals in London Tate galleries 1984 in art 1984 establishments in the United Kingdom Annual events in the United Kingdom Awards with age limits British art awards

Background

Winners and nominees

History

1984

1985

1986

1987

1988

1989

1990

1991

1992

1993

1994

1995

1996

1997

1999

2000

2001

2002

2003

2004

2005

2006

2007

2008

2009

2010

2011

2012

2013

2014

2015

2016

2017

2019

2020

2021

2022

Public perception

In favour

Opposed

Alternative and spoof prizes

See also

References

External links