Michael Gove has attacked the Turner Prize for celebrating what he claims is the "tragic emptiness of now", and labelled the prestigious arts award as "modish crap".

This year's winner, Helen Marten, was the youngest artist on the shortlist and praised for her "exceptional contribution to comtemporary visual art".

But in a series of tweets, the former Education Secretary criticised the award and accused it of celebrating "ugliness, nihilism and narcissism".

Former Conservative Culture Minister Ed Vaizey attemped to shut down his colleague by noting that it celebrates "brilliant contemporary artists".

Gove claimed that it had nothing to do with the genius of its namesake, JMW Turner. However he did also later offer his congratulations to Marten (spelling her name wrong), but continued to suggest that art was better in the olden days.

Turner Prize-winners were among those who welcomed the announcement earlier this month that the art history A-level had been saved at the last minute.

Anish Kapoor, Cornelia Parker and Jeremy Deller celebrated the turn-around on plans set in motion by Gove to drop the subject from 2018 as part of his cull of so-called "soft" subjects.

The art history A-level was saved after an outcry from experts who argued "society had never required its insights more".

One art history teacher told The Guardian that the decision was "really sad and incredibly short-signed - and directly caused by Government interference".

Art historian Simon Schama said the act was "a big dull axe wielded by cultural pygmies".