The competition was set up to be populist. In its current introspective mood, though, it risks pushing away the public
The Turner prize this year is not about celebrating, or creating, big names in the British art scene. Instead, the shortlist exhibition, which opened at the Herbert gallery, Coventry, last week, is devoted to collectives – most of which pursue social benefits, whether drawing attention to environmental issues in food production, or working with neurodiverse people to create art.
The value of these aims is clear. But one might well ask, what has all this to do with a prize that, since its foundation in 1984, has brought to public attention some of Britain’s most important individual artists, among them Rachel Whiteread, Steve McQueen and Lubaina Himid?