Opinion: Despite Mediocre List, Turner Prize Retains Relevance

Rebecca Warren Deimantas Narkevicius Wins 2008 Vincent Award Painter, Sculptor and Video Artist Compete for Britain's Controversial Turner Prize Tomma Abts Takes UK’s Turner Prize What’s Next: A Medium Less Rare Art News: Something Stinks at Turner Prize, Judge Says Art News: Britains Turner Prize in Full Swing Art News: Collins Records Reality Show Rejects for Turner Exhibition

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This year's shortlist, which includes abstract painter Tomma Abts, video installation artist Phil Collins, billboard artist Mark Titchner and sculptor Rebecca Warren, is "about as inspiring as the new Conservative A-list," Campbell-Johnson writes sharply. "It risks stirring little except an intense public apathy."

"Something is missing: and some might say that it's talent," she continues.

Despite reserving such harsh criticism for this year's nominees, Campbell-Johnson weighs against calling for an end to the Turner Prize. "The Turner," she writes, "probably represents about the single most effective force in forging our relationship with contemporary art."

Like no other force, it still possesses the "capacity to focus public attention on contemporary artistic developments."