Art in the Round: The 2008 Turner Prize

J.M.W. Turner, considered controversial during his lifetime, had wanted to establish a prize for young British artists. When the Turner Prize was established in the 1980s, it was named after him, though many thought the association out of place: artists and anyone working in the arts were nominated for pushing envelopes and breaking molds; Turner, now regarded as a cultural treasure, did not seem to fit the bill. On top of that, many objected to the idea of art being a “race” with one designated “winner.” The rules and requirements changed several times before 1990, and the event even went on hiatus for a year when its sponsor went bankrupt.

The prize returned in 1991 with a shortlist and a group exhibit for all those on it. For a time, the prize had exhibited only the winner’s work, but this enhancement of the “race” aspect was quickly eliminated. If there is any artist whom the Turner Prize seems to exemplify, it’s 20th-century French artist Marcel Duchamp, who favored taking “what we know and showing it back to us in a museum, or by taking what we experience daily and forcing us to ask ourselves: Is it life? Or could it be art?” Or so argues Donald Eubank in an article for the Japan Times (a retrospective exhibit of the Turner Prize is on display in Tokyo until July 13). Among Turner nominees, Eubank notes, are Tracy Emin and her lived-in bed, Damien Hirst’s cows in formaldehyde and Mark Wallinger’s reconstructed Iraq war protest signs. At the root of these projects are found objects, a medium Duchamp pioneered.

The behind-the-curtain force of the Turner Prize is Sir Nicolas Serota, who has directed the prize and sat on its jury for many years, and who spearheaded the founding of the Tate Modern, of which he is the director. Appropriately, Serota is as much a focal point of controversy as the Turner Prize, but under his supervision the Tate Modern has outdone the Museum of Modern Art and Pompidou Center as the most popular modern museum in the world. It’s the “Cathedral of Cool,” writes the Guardian in a 2005 profile of Serota, and though the Turner exhibit is, oddly, still held in the Tate Britain, the prize complements Serota’s business side.

The Turner Prize’s shortlisted artists this year are Runa Islam, whose films gained her a spot in the 2007 Venice Biennial; Mark Leckey, who comments on culture using mixed media like film and sculpture; Goshka Macuga, who catalogues history through mixed media narratives and Cathy Wilkes, whose sculptures focus on women and sexuality. Visit BBC News for brief profiles of the four nominees.

The Turner Prize exhibit will be displayed at the Tate Britain from September 30, 2008, until January 18, 2009. The winner will be announced on December 1. For more information, visit Tate Britain’s page on the 2008 exhibit.