Ukranian billionaire Victor Pinchuk has placed an enormous burden on a Japanese curator name Yuko Hasegawa.
When he announced his $100,000 Pinchuk Prize — aka the Future Generation Art Prize — last month, I complained here that Pinchuk had managed to virtually ignore half the world’s population, namely women. Among the many board members and artist-mentors, he named only one woman, fashion designer/collector Miuccia Prada.
This week, Pinchuk announced the prize’s jury. Among the seven members, again, just one woman — Hasegawa (at right), Chief Curator of the Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo (MOT); former Chief Curator of the 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa.
That mix is hardly representative of the art world, and it’s a snub to the talented female curators, museum directors, critics, academics, dealers and collectors that populate the art world. Not to mention female artists.
Let’s hope Hasegawa has a strong voice. She’ll need it among these other jurors:
- Daniel Birnbaum (Sweden) – Director of the Städelschule Art Academy, Frankfurt am Main; Director of the Venice Biennale 2009
- Okwui Enwezor (Nigeria) – Director of Documenta XI; former Dean of Academic Affairs and Senior Vice President at San Francisco Art Institute
- Ivo Mesquita (Brazil) РChief Curator at the Pinacoteca do Estado de Ṣo Paulo; Curator of the 2008 Ṣo Paolo Biennial
- Eckhard Schneider (Germany) – General Director of the PinchukArtCentre
- Robert Storr (USA) – Dean of the Yale University School of Art; Director of the Venice Biennale 2007
- Ai Weiwei (China) – artist
Artists can apply here until April 18; the winner will be announced in December.