Will the last one out please turn the lights on and off : The Turner Prize

As ever the Turner Prize 2001 has shaken up the pundits as no other art event can. It can't have escaped your notice that this year's winner of the �20,000 prize is Martin Creed, for his installation The Lights Going On and Off. Controversy rages as to whether such a piece merits any recognition at all, and even the artist has rather disingenuously claimed not to know what the work is about.

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Q. So what is it about

A. Who knows The title tells you everything about the installation: an empty room with neon lights on the ceiling going on and off at regular intervals. Creed's past exhibits have included crumpled paper and some Blu-Tack.

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Q. And a few comments about Creed's work

A. Simon Wilson of Tate Britain told the BBC: 'We just can't win. One year we have dirty knickers and an unmade bed and people complain, now we have something as pure and simple as this and people will still complain.'

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The Guardian has commented: 'Even people who don't much like Martin Creed's contribution to this year's Turner Prize will remember the frustrating enigma of standing in an otherwise empty space with the lights going on and off. They will recall being there. This, surely, is one of art's jobs: to make us aware of where we are, where we have been.'

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Q. Who else was up for the prize this year

A. Video artist and photographer Richard Billingham for his landscape photographs and two video projections, Tony Smoking Backwards and Ray in Bed: Untitled Triptych; film-maker Isaac Julien for the videos The Long Road to Mazatlan and Vagabondia; and Mike Nelson for his installation The Cosmic Legend of the Uroboros Serpent.

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As you can see there's not a single painter among those shortlisted, something which causes a certain amount of alarm in some quarters. The Stuckists - a group of artists dedicated to the cause of those more traditional forms of artistic expression, painting and sculpture - held a protest.

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Q. How about a little history of the prize

A. The Turner Prize at Tate Britain is widely recognised as one of the most important and prestigious awards for the visual arts in Europe. Channel 4 television now sponsor the prize, as they have since 1991.

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It was established in 1984 by Tate's Patrons of New Art and is intended to promote public discussion of new developments in contemporary British art. Their original statement concerning the prize was: 'The �10,000 prize is awarded to the person who, in the opinion of the Jury, has made the greatest contribution to art in Britain in the previous 12 months.'

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In 1987, the company Drexel Burnham Lambert became sponsors of the prize and the following year a new statement about the prize was issued. When this sponsorship ended in 1989, the prize was suspended for the following year while a new sponsorship arrangement was developed.

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When Channel 4 took over the prize money was upped to �20,000 and the upper age limit for an artist to be eligible was set at 50. A one-hour documentary on the shortlisted artists and live television coverage of the prize-giving was also included in the package.

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Q. Who picks the winner

A. A different jury is selected each year by the Patrons of New Art in association with the Tate. The jury always includes a British curator, a British critic, an overseas curator, a representative of the Patrons and the Tate Director as Chair.

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The members of the 2001 jury were: Patricia Bickers, Editor, Art Monthly; Stuart Evans, representative of the Patrons of New Art; Robert Storr, Senior Curator, Painting and Sculpture, The Museum of Modern Art, New York; Jonathan Watkins, Director, Ikon Gallery, Birmingham; Nicholas Serota, Director of Tate and Chairman of the Jury.

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Q. And past winners

A. Past winners have included Chris Ofili (1998), the most recent painter to win; Damien Hirst (1995) of pickled-shark fame; Antony Gormley (1994), whose best-known work is Angel of the North; and Gilbert and George (1986), the suit-wearing duo from Spitalfields. Big names who have been shortlisted but who haven't won include the late film-maker Derek Jarman and veteran painter Lucien Freud.

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The current exhibition of the shortlisted artists runs at the Tate Britain in London until 20 January 2002

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Air your dirty bed linen about the Turner Prize - or art in general - on the answerbank here

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Find out more about the Stuckists at http://www.stuckism.com

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See also the articles on Brit Art and Anthony d'Offay

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For more on Arts & Literature click here

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By Simon Smith