Turner Prize

The Turner Prize, named after the painter Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775-1851, arguably the greatest British Romantic landscape painter of all time. Founded in 1984 it comprises an annual award presented to a British visual artist under the age of 50. The Tate Gallery are the prize givers and it has been for many years staged at Tate Britain on London's Embankment. It is undoubtedly the UK’s most high profile art event open to all who qualify by age. It is meant to represent all media but most of its prize winners have been conceptual artists rather than figurative. In 2008 the value of the prize was £25,000 with £5,000 awarded to each of three ‘nominee’ runners-up, in all totalling £40,000. The event raises controversy on several fronts. Firstly the exhibits themselves raise eyebrows. Notorious exhibits have included Damiem Hurst’s shark in formaldehyde and Tracey Emin’s unmade, stained bed. The former was a prize winner and the latter a nominee. Further polemic arose when the then Minister of Culture Kim Howells publicly criticised exhibits with other protestations in the form of repeated yearly demonstrations by the anti-conceptual art group The Stuckists. The first prize winner in 1984 was British-born but American based artist Malcolm Morley. Others include Howard Hodgkin, Gilbert & George, Richard Deacon, Richard Long, Anish Kapoor, Antony Gormley, and Grayson Perry.