Traditionalists launch £20,000 annual prize

A group of artists opposed to the "pickled animals and soiled beds" of conceptual art have launched a £20,000 annual prize to revive the fortunes of more traditional exponents.

The Traditional Art Association has set up the prize to counter what it claims is a bias, driven by arts councils, in favour of artists such as Damien Hirst and Tracey Emin, both recipients of the Turner prize for modern art.

The TAA prize was launched in Edinburgh this week and will be promoted in London, Italy and the United States in the coming weeks. Its founders hope to secure further funding.

Charles Harris, chairman of the TAA and a landscape artist who graduated from the Royal Academy, said conceptual art had been allowed to dominate in the past 30 years to such an extent it had stifled traditional artists.

The 150 members of the TAA, mostly artists and craftspeople from Scotland, are united by an appreciation of Renaissance art – but are committed to promoting contemporary artists.

Mr Harris said the "final straw" had come when last year's Turner prize was awarded to Martin Creed for his entry titled "The Lights Go On and Off", featuring a bank of lights flickering in a room. Mr Harris, who is little known outside his native Scotland where he has become a fierce critic of Modernist sculpture, said: "One of the aims of this organisation is to create an academic alternative to the Turner prize.

"This new prize will, this time, represent traditional art. We do not consider this year's winner, a light switch, belongs to the realm of art but belongs strictly to the electrical trade. The Traditional Art Association will also represent a public view of art.

He added: "The public at large do not tend to like or support much of the modern art movement and have been distanced from art instead of being encouraged to join in."