Turner Prize 2014 reviews: a 'frustratingly timid' year

But James Richards' 'sphincter shots' ensure the Turner Prize has still got its power to shock

Ciara Phillips' 'Things Shared 2014' at Tate Britain
(Image credit: Matthew Lloyd/Getty)

This year marks the 30th anniversary of the Turner Prize, which has in the past provoked outrage, indignation and anguished debate about the definition of art. But as the 2014 exhibition opens today critics are complaining that it is "frustratingly timid" and "underwhelming".

The Stuckists, a group of art agitators who normally protest against the Turner Prize, are not even demonstrating this year, notes Scottish newspaper The Herald. They apparently left a note outside Tate Britain saying the exhibition is full of "predictable and pathetic level of elitist repetition that is not worth bothering about".

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