ABOVE: two works by artists competing for the 2005 Turner Prize: left, detail from Gillian Carnegie’s Fleurs de Huile; right, detail from Darren Almond’s Meantime. Carnegie is already favoured to win.

The 2005 Turner Prize nominees were announced yesterday, and the BBC noted that English bookmakers William Hill have already announced that painter Gillian Carnegie is the artist to beat, with odds of 1 to 1. The Turner, arguably the most important contemporary art prize in the world, has developed a reputation for what we will politely call eccentricity, and is often criticized for emphasizing conceptual over aesthetic concerns. Well, experts—the gamblers, at any rate—reckon that this is the year the committee will break that streak and award the prize to painter Carnegie, who does still life. In oil paint. On canvas. Try to contain yourself.

In case Will Hill is barking up the wrong installation, the other artists nominated for the £25,000 prize are: Installation artist Darren Almond; conceptual sculptor Jim Lambie; and scavenger-sculptor Simon Starling. Exhibits of the artists’ works will open at the Tate Britain on October 18, and the prize will be announced during a live broadcast on Channel 4 on December 5. Eat that, American Idol.

LINK: Tate Britain > Turner Prize 2005 Shortlist Announced