* The Turner prize

Introduction
The build-up to the announcement of the winner, each year, receives intense attention from many branches of the media, much of it critical, addressing the question "what is art?". The artists themselves usually work in modern forms, including installation art and unconventional sculpture, though painters have also won.

Nominations for the prize are invited from the public, and the short-list (which since 1991 has been of four artists) is announced several months before the prize-giving. An exhibition accompanies the prize with works by each of the artists being shown at Tate Britain. The prize is not judged on these works alone, however, but on the artists' work as a whole over the previous year.

The exhibition and prize rely on commercial sponsorship. From 1987 this was provided by the company Drexel Burnham Lambert; their withdrawal led to the 1990 prize being cancelled. Channel 4, an independent television channel, stepped in for 1991, doubled the prize money to the current level, and supported the event with documentaries and live broadcasts of the prize-giving.

The media success of the Turner Prize arguably contributed to the success of the late 1990s phenomena of Young British Artists and Cool Britannia, and exhibitions such as the Charles Saatchi-sponsored Sensation.

Criticism of the Turner Prize
As well as typical essay-based criticism, there have been the following less formal attacks on the prize.

In 1993, Jimmy Cauty and Bill Drummond of the K Foundation 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, who won the real prize, also won the anti-Turner 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. The K Foundation went on to make a film in which £1 million appears to be burned.
In 1999 two artists, Jian Jun Xi and Yuan Cai, jumped onto Tracey Emin's work, My 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.
In 1999 a pro-painting group of artists known as the Stuckists was formed. They show particular antipathy towards the Turner Prize, describing it as an "ongoing national joke" and "a state-funded advertising agency for Charles Saatchi"; they continue: "the only artist who wouldn't be in danger of winning the Turner Prize is Turner", concluding that it "should be re-named The Duchamp Award for the destruction of artistic integrity".
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 the London dealers most closely linked to the collector Charles Saatchi; Jay Jopling, Maureen Paley and Victoria Miro. This is not entirely supported as the Lisson Gallery has had the most success of any gallery with the Turner Prize from 1991 - 2004.
In 2002 culture minister Kim Howells 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"

List of winners and shortlisted artists
It should be noted that the 1988 shortlist was not published at the time of the prize, and that there was no shortlist as such in 1989, although a number of artists other than the winner were "commended".

1984 - Malcolm Morley, winner
Richard Deacon
Gilbert and George
Howard Hodgkin
Richard Long
1985 - Howard Hodgkin, winner
Terry Atkinson
Tony Cragg
Ian Hamilton Finlay
Milena Kalinovska
John Walker
1986 - Gilbert and George, winner
Art & Language
Victor Burgin
Derek Jarman
Steven McKenna
Bill Woodrow
1987 - Richard Deacon, winner
Patrick Caulfield
Helen Chadwick
Richard Long
Declan McGonagle
Thérèse Oulton
1988 - Tony Cragg, winner
Lucian Freud
Richard Hamilton
Richard Long
David Mach
Boyd Webb
Alison Wilding
Richard Wilson
1989 - Richard Long, winner
Gillian Ayres
Lucian Freud
Giuseppe Penone
Paula Rego
Sean Scully
Richard Wilson
1990 - prize suspended
1991 - Anish Kapoor, winner
Ian Davenport
Fiona Rae
Rachel Whiteread
1992 - Grenville Davey, winner
Damien Hirst
David Tremlett
Alison Wilding
1993 - Rachel Whiteread, winner
Hannah Collins
Vong Phaophanit
Sean Scully
1994 - Antony Gormley, winner
Willie Doherty
Peter Doig
Shirazeh Houshiary
1995 - Damien Hirst, winner
Mona Hatoum
Callum Innes
Mark Wallinger
1996 - Douglas Gordon, winner
Craigie Horsfield
Gary Hume
Simon Patterson
1997 - Gillian Wearing, winner
Christine Borland
Angela Bulloch
Cornelia Parker
1998 - Chris Ofili, winner
Tacita Dean
Cathy de Monchaux
Sam Taylor-Wood
1999 - Steve McQueen, winner
Jane and Louise Wilson
Steven Pippin
Tracey Emin, whose My Bed got the most media attention
2000 - Wolfgang Tillmans, winner
Glenn Brown
Michael Raedecker
Tomoko Takahashi
2001 - Martin Creed, winner
Richard Billingham
Isaac Julien
Mike Nelson
2002 - Keith Tyson, winner
Fiona Banner
Liam Gillick
Catherine Yass
2003 - Grayson Perry, winner [1] (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/arts/3298707.stm)
Jake and Dinos Chapman
Willie Doherty
Anya Gallaccio
2004 shortlist:
Kutlug Ataman
Jeremy Deller
Langlands and Bell
Yinka Shonibare

This data is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "turner prize".