1984 - 1990  |  1991 - 1996  |  1997 - 2001  |  2002 - 2005

History 1991 - 1996

Rachel Whiteread Ghost 1990 Plaster on steel frame 69 x 355.5 x 317.5cm © the artist Photo: Anthony d'Offay Gallery The Saatchi Collection, London

The Prize bounced back in 1991, with a new sponsor - Channel 4 - and double the prize money - now £20,000. The shortlist, and exhibition of work by shortlisted artists, was reinstated. An age limit was introduced for the first time: now only artists under 50 were eligible, to make it clear that the prize was to highlight outstanding recent work, rather than to reward the achievements of a lifetime. Some thought the jury took this to extremes when the shortlist for 1991 included three artists under thirty.

1993 was something of a watershed, with a marked increase in the number of visitors coming to see the exhibition. The winner was Rachel Whiteread, despite outstandingly vituperative attacks on her work House (a cast of the interior of the last remaining house of a late-nineteenth century terrace in the East End of London) and the local council's determination to knock it down.

Vong Phaophanit Neon Rice Field 1993 © the artist and Stephen Friedman Gallery, London   Photo: Tate Photography

But it was now becoming clear that there was an increasingly wide gap between the condemnation of the critics and the responses of visitors. The main focus of jeering from the critics in 1993 was Vong Phaophanit's Neon Rice Field. But a series of interviews conducted by the Daily Telegraph showed that in fact few visitors found this a difficult work. Many of the staff said they felt the warm red glow gave a strong sense of the life force in this simple white foodstuff that half the planet depended on, and everyone seemed to enjoy its uncomplicated beauty.

Damien Hirst Mother and Child, Divided 1993 © the artist Photo: Tate Photography Astrup Fearnley Museum, Oslo

In the following year the Prize was ten years old, and by now it seemed to have achieved the impossible: establishing a contemporary art event as something of national concern. 1994 also saw a notable trend towards more serious discussion of the work of the shortlisted artists, which the Gallery boosted by the introduction of explanatory wall texts and an additional room giving information about the artists, including a film made by Illuminations for Channel 4.

Damien Hirst's Mother and Child, Divided brought in an unprecedented number of visitors in the following year, as well as fuelling a tidal wave of tabloid excitement. By contrast, the 1996 shortlist was widely seen as boring - and worse, not a single woman's name appeared on it.

On to 1997 - 2003