Of unmade beds and pickled cows

The Turner Prize could rarely be accused of being boring. Artfully courting controversy since its debut in the 80s, it has illuminated the names of many now well-established contemporary artists.

The celebratory aspect of the prize is sometimes forgotten amidst the wash of sensationalist coverage which, over the years, has fuelled indignation and consternation amongst a bemused public.

This retrospective at Tate Britain looks back over the last 23 years of the prize and features key pieces from the work of each year's winner, set against details of all four shortlisted artists.

Unlike the Mercury Music Award, which is often accused of leading to promising young artists disappearing into obscurity after a win, the Turner is consistent in raising the profile of its winning - and shortlisted - artists.

The exhibition is splattered with famous works of modern art: Damien Hirst's cows split in half, levitating in formaldehyde tanks; Grayson Perry's glazed ceramic vases which provide a canvas for stories such as "We've found the body of your child"; Anthony Gormley's bent-at-the-waist bronze figures...

The shorlists are also a who's who of contemporary art. Sam Taylor Wood lost out to Chris Ofili's elephant dung encrusted paintings in 1998 and, although her unmade bed stole the headlines in 1999, Tracey Emin lost to the black and white films of Steve McQueen.

The prize started out in 1984, established by a group called the Patrons of New Art who wanted to promote contemporary art at the Tate.

It's named after 19th century painter JMW Turner who had never made his wish to set up a prize for younger artists a reality during his lifetime.

By the 90s, however, critics had grown tired of it favouring older, more established artists (winners in the 80s included Gilbert and George and Howard Hodgkin - his painting pictured above right) and called for a tightening-up of the entry rules.

In 1991, Channel 4 took over as sponsor, and rules were changed so that only British artists under 50 could enter with work made no more than 12 months earlier.

Anish Kapoor - somewhat more of a veteran than his younger fellow nominees - won that year. His untitled installation - a tryptich of deep, dark blue cavernous half-spheres - occupies a room of its own in the exhibition.

It gives what the curator describes as a "sensation of the sublime" - like staring into the darkest night or the deepest void. Kapoor describes this void as "really a state within. It has to do with fear and inner darkness."

By the 1990s the prize was in its stride, signalling the arrival of the Young British Artists (YBAs) and a new sensationalism to contemporary British art. But the prize was frequently criticised for being too conceptual. In 2001 Martin Creed's winning exhibition, featuring the installation "Lights going on and off", appalled some critics.

It does exactly what it says on the tin: the lights go on and then they go off. But some felt the judges had gone too far.

The debate rumbles on. The following year, outspoken culture minister Kim Howells, placed a comment card at the end of the exhibition condemning the artwork: "If this is the best British artists can produce then British art is lost. It is cold, mechanical, conceptual bullshit."

But as this retrospective shows, although separated by time from the media lather that surrounded their initial nominations, winning pieces from 10 and 20 years ago can still hold their own in the white box.

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