Turner Prize

Turner Prize, annual prize awarded by the Tate Gallery in London, England, for achievement in the visual arts in Britain. The Turner Prize was established in 1984, with the support of an anonymous patron, as an award for the person who “has made the greatest contribution to art in Britain in the previous twelve months.” The competition jury, consisting primarily of curators, critics, and art historians, draws up a list of four candidates, whose work is exhibited at the Tate before the eventual winner is announced. Although the prize is theoretically open to art administrators and writers on art, it has in fact been given exclusively to artists. The first two winners, Malcolm Morley and Howard Hodgkin, were painters, but since 1986 the prize has been given to artists in other areas. Sculptors, including Anish Kapoor (1991), Rachel Whiteread (1993), and Antony Gormley (1994), have been particularly successful.

The Turner Prize has attracted the support of a variety of sponsors. In addition to the original patron, who supported it in its first three years, a financial services firm backed it between 1987 and 1989. Although the prize was not awarded in 1990, it was revived in 1991, under the sponsorship of a British television station, to be allocated to “a British artist under the age of 50 for an outstanding exhibition or other presentation of their work in the previous 12 months.” The prize has enhanced the prestige of avant-garde art in Britain and has introduced innovative new art to a wider public.