LaToya Ruby Frazier, Me and Mom's Boyfriend Mr. Art, 2005. Gelatin silver print. 20 x 24 in (51 x 61 cm). Courtesy the artist, from Younger than Jesus at the New Museum of Contemporary Art, curated by Massimiliano Gioni, nominated for Curator of the Year.
Francis Bacon, Study from the Human Body, 1949, Oil on canvas, 1470 x 1342 mm, © The Estate of Francis Bacon/DACS 2008, Image courtesy of National Gallery of Victoria, Photographic Services, from Francis Bacon, Tate Britain, nominated for Best Exhibition Outside the U.S.
Mary Heilmann, Clubchair, 2008, Painted wood with nylon webbing, 26-1/4 x 17-1/2 x 17-1/2". Heilmann is nominated as Artist of the Year.
Rob Pruitt and the Downtown Divas.
The Art Awards Statuette |
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Guggenheim Museum
1071 Fifth Avenue
New York
212-423-3500
Rob Pruitt’s
The First Annual Art Awards
Thursday, October 29, 2009
Artist Rob Pruitt, whose conceptual practice is rooted in a pop sensibility and a playful critique of art world structures, has conceived The First Annual Art Awards as a performance-based artwork which follows the format of a Hollywood awards ceremony. The Art Awards will be an annual celebration of select individuals, exhibitions, and projects that have made a significant impact on the field of contemporary art during the previous year, specifically, for this year’s ceremony, from January 2008 to June 2009.
According to Mr. Pruitt, “This annual gesture will function as a community-building and philanthropic event for the Guggenheim Museum, White Columns and, in 2009, Studio in a School, while simultaneously mobilizing the wide ranging talents and energies of the international arts community, focusing on our mutual admiration and support for one another's unique endeavors.” Mr. Pruitt continued, “With one eye on supporting our great institutions, and the other on injecting our community with a renewed sense of energy, spirit, and a dash of showbiz glamour, we are pleased to announce this very unique event.”
Richard Armstrong, Director of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation and Museum, stated, “As the impresario behind the First Annual Art Awards, Rob Pruitt presents a daring new event model injected with the humor that underscores his work. Pruitt’s orchestration of this performative piece—with the rotunda as center stage—is aligned with the Guggenheim’s mission to continue to engage and present contemporary artists.”
Pruitt has invited the Delusional Downtown Divas to preside over the event as Masters of Ceremonies, and Glenn O’Brien will step in as the Announcer, or, as Pruitt describes his role, as “the Voice of God.” An additional distinguished list of presenters will participate in distributing the awards, created by Pruitt to resemble a celebratory bucket of champagne that also serves as a fully functional lamp. The presenters will include Cecily Brown, Sofia Coppola, James Franco, Knight Landesman, Nate Lowman, and Mary-Kate Olsen, among others. Original music has been composed by Matthew Friedberger of the Fiery Furnaces, who will perform at the event. Christine Muhlke, food editor of the •New York Times Magazine•, is curating the cuisine for the seated dinner.
Lifetime Achievement Awards, determined by Rob Pruitt along with organizing partners the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum and White Columns, will be awarded to Joan Jonas and Kasper König. In addition, a group of more than four hundred art world professionals has been invited to form a Nominating Council that will select four nominees in nine categories that focus primarily on exhibitions and projects that took place over the preceding eighteen months (January 2008 to June 2009), in the United States, as well as one category recognizing an international exhibition. The Rob Pruitt Award is being decided solely by the artist. Of the following list of nominees, a larger group (including the Nominating Council) will establish the eventual winners, who will be announced at the live awards ceremony on October 29. The ten categories — in addition to the Lifetime Achievement Award — and the nominees for each category are:
Artist of the Year
Louise Bourgeois, Urs Fischer, Dan Graham, Mary Heilmann.
Curator of the Year
Klaus Biesenbach, Daniel Birnbaum, Connie Butler, Massimiliano Gioni.
Exhibition Outside the U.S.
Francis Bacon, Tate Britain, London; Jeff Koons, Versailles, Château de Versailles, France; Mike Kelley: Educational Complex Onwards: 1995–2008, Wiels Contemporary Art Centre, Brussels; and Wolfgang Tillmans: Lighter, Hamburger Bahnhof, Museum für Gegenwart, Berlin.
Gallery Group Show
of the Year
A Twilight Art, Harris Lieberman, New York; Who’s Afraid of Jasper Johns? Tony Shafrazi Gallery, New York; Your Gold Teeth II, Marianne Boesky Gallery, New York; and ZERO in New York, Sperone Westwater, New York.
Museum Group Show
of the Year
After Nature, New Museum, New York; The Pictures Generation, 1974-1984, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; The Quick and the Dead, Walker Art Center, Minneapolis; and WACK! Art and the Feminist Revolution, P.S. 1 Contemporary Art Center, Long Island City, New York.
New Artist of the Year
Elad Lassry, Daniel McDonald, Marlo Pascual, Ryan Trecartin.
The Rob Pruitt Award
To be announced the evening of October 29, 2009.
Gallery Solo Show
of the Year
Cindy Sherman, Metro Pictures, New York; Manzoni: A Retrospective, Gagosian Gallery, New York; Paul Sharits, Greene Naftali Gallery, New York; and Picasso: Mosqueteros, Gagosian Gallery, New York.
Museum Solo Show
of the Year
Dan Graham: Beyond, Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, and Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; Lawrence Weiner: As Far as the Eye Can See, Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, and Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; Live Forever: Elizabeth Peyton, New Museum, New York; and Martin Kippenberger: The Problem Perspective, Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, and Museum of Modern Art, New York.
Writer of the Year
Tim Griffin, John Kelsey, Walter Robinson, Jerry Saltz.
Net proceeds from the 2009 Art Awards will benefit the following not-for-profit arts organizations: the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, White Columns, and Studio in a School. Tickets for the event are offered by invitation only. Highlights from the Art Awards ceremony including video montages created for each category will be available to view on Guggenheim.org following the ceremony. Additionally, a series of segments devoted to The First Annual Art Awards will be broadcast after the event by Ovation TV and available on OvationTV.com.
Founded in 1937, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation is dedicated to promoting the understanding and appreciation of art, primarily of the modern and contemporary periods, through exhibitions, education programs, research initiatives, and publications. Currently the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation owns and operates the Guggenheim Museum on Fifth Avenue in New York and the Peggy Guggenheim Collection on the Grand Canal in Venice, and also provides programming and management for two other museums in Europe that bear its name: the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao and the Deutsche Guggenheim in Berlin. In 2013 the Guggenheim Abu Dhabi Museum, a museum of modern and contemporary art designed by architect Frank Gehry, is scheduled to open.
Rob Pruitt’s The First Annual Art Awards is also supported by Ovation TV, the exclusive television broadcaster of the event.
Ovation TV is the only multi-platform network devoted to art and contemporary culture. The network creates and curates one-of-a-kind programming about all the art people enjoy most, from the popular to the avant-garde and everything in between. The channel reaches a national audience of thirty-two million households through carriage on DirecTV (channel 274), Dish Network (channel 157) and on cable and telco systems in major markets across the country. Ovation TV’s programming is also available on video on demand (in both standard and high definition) in the US. Ovation TV’s popular Web site OvationTV.com is a dynamic experience, featuring information about local and national happenings in the art world, as well as a vibrant community of artists who have downloaded over eighty thousand pieces of original art. |
