Texas tour earns Turner Prize

A video tour of Texas won British artist Jeremy Deller the Turner Prize on Monday, one of the art world’s most contentious awards.

Deller landed the $48,500 first prize by taking art lovers on a video voyage from Crawford, home to President Bush’s ranch, to Waco, near the site of the Branch Davidian siege.

The jury for the prize, which always stirs a heated debate in Britain about what modern art is all about, praised Deller for his “generosity of spirit across a succession of projects.” Recent winners of the Turner have included a transvestite potter and an artist whose masterpiece was an empty room with a bare light that switched on and off.