Turner Prize 2011

The winner of the 2011 Turner Prize for contemporary art will be announced later today.

This year the event is being held at the BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art, Gateshead.  It will be the first time a non-TATE gallery hosts the event since the Prize was established in 1984.

Scottish sculptor Martin Boyce is the bookies favourite, with fellow sculptor Karla Black, video artist Hilary Lloyd and painter George Shaw the other nominees. 

Each year the Prize is judged by an independent jury of art directors and curators with the winner receiving £25,000.

Previous winners include Antony Gormley (1994), Damien Hurst (1995) and Grayson Perry (2003). 

Barnes Wins 2011 Booker Prize

It was fourth time lucky for Julian Barnes who finally picked up the Man Booker Prize for his novel The Sense of an Ending. The win came after an intensely bitter build-up in which this years judges were accused by critics of putting "readability" above quality.

Barnes saw off competition from fellow nominees Carol Birch, Patrick deWitt, Esi Edugyan and debut authors Stephen Kelman and A.D Miller.

 

The Sense of an Ending is told by principle character Tony Webster, a middle-aged man who, after the suicide of a life-long friend receives a letter which contains an unusual request.  

Julian Barnes: 2011 Booker Prize winner for A Sense of an Ending