Article: Prize that remains a head-turner Love it or loathe it, for over 20 years the Turner Prize has brought the contemporary art debate into the mainstream. But will the winning works be able to stand the test of time, asks SUSAN MANSFIELD

'THE annual farce of the Turner Prize is now as inevitable in November as is the pantomime at Christmas," wrote the art critic Brian Sewell in 1992. And for more than a decade he was right. The tabloids could retread the same jokes every year. Elephant dung? Unmade beds? Pickled farm animals? It must be the Turner.

In recent years, however, they've had less to get their teeth into, causing speculation that the country's most famous art prize has gone respectable. In 2005, one newspaper played on the irony: "Turner Prize shocker: the favourite is a woman who paints flowers. Whatever next?"

The artist in question - Gillian Carnegie - didn't win. It took Scotland's Simon Starling and a ...

Related newspaper, magazine, and journal articles:

 
 
Newsweek Harper's Magazine The Washington Post Chicago Tribune Crain's Chicago Business PRNewswire Pediatric News The Nation Advertising Age The Economist (US) A FREE trial gives you access to over 80 million articles! Access over 6,500 publications with a FREE trial!