Turner Prize 2008: runners and riders

Tonight's winner will be announced live on Channel 4 News from 7.50pm.

A brief history of the Turner Prize

It's that time of year again: Christmas lights, advent calenders and ... the Turner Prize. Today marks the twenty fourth year of the prize, arguably known more for its courtship of controversy than the artists it's championed.

The prize owes its name to the 19th century landscapist JMW Turner, whose wish to set up a prize for younger artists never came to pass during his lifetime. But an early track record of favouring older artists over new blood - early winners included Gilbert and George and Howard Hodgkin - led to criticism, not least for diverging from Turner's wishes.

After a brief break, in 1991 Channel 4 took over as sponsor, tightening up the rules so that only British artists under 50 could enter. To keep the competition fressh, work submitted for entry must have been made no more than 12 months earlier.

With the new rules in place, a series of now well-known young(er) artists took the prize. Anish Kapoor won the "new-style" prize in 1991. And in the late 90s the Turner became synonymous with the Young British Artists (YBAs) - artists like Damien Hirst, Tracey Emin and Chris Ofili - that took the art world by storm.

Resonances of the sensationalism that accompanied the YBAs' entrance into the art world are still felt; last year's winner, Mark Wallinger, wandered around a deserted German gallery dressed as a bear.

Not quite as other-worldly as halved farmyard animals pickled in formaldehyde perhaps, but at the age of 48, Wallinger was cutting it fine to be nominated. He must have been relieved, having been beaten to the prize in 1995 by the prize-pickler himself, Damien Hirst, in the 'Brit Art' heyday.

Ruth Brown

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