Are there more art prizes for individual artists this year, or does it just seem that way? And are they all worthwhile?

I’ve posted here about several — the MacDowell Medal, the Wolgin Prize, Guggenheim Fellowships, the Public Art Award, the Biennale’s Golden Lion award, and of course ArtPrize. Some new, some old, and just a small sampling of those available.

Last Thursday came the brand new “First Annual Art Awards” produced by artist Rob Pruitt at the Guggenheim Museum “in association with” White Columns and “event partner” Calvin Klein Collection. Phew.

The dozen awards were for lifetime achievement, an international exhibition, and nine meant for exhibitions and projects that had significant impact on the field of contemporary art and took place between January 2008 and June 2009 in the United States. Artists and art world professionals (it’s unclear how they were chosen) selected the winners, except for the two Lifetime Achievement Awards, which were determined by Pruitt, the Guggenheim and White Columns, and the Rob Pruitt Award, which “was decided solely by the artist.”

The awards were given at a dinner at the Guggenheim, intended to rival the Oscars: “Tickets for the event were offered by invitation only.” The prizes, designed by Pruitt, were fashioned as buckets of Champagne that are actually lamps.     

Ok, it was a benefit, but the whole thing strikes me as off-key — a fest for the elite that ends up being more about partying than art, and alienates the general public. And, yes, as the Los Angeles Times’ Culture Monster blog said, it was supposed to be ironic — but I wonder if that’s how it was perceived. David Ng, the LAT writer, wondered, too. Many news outlets seem to have ignored the whole thing.

[Read more…] about Send This Art Prize Back To The Drawing Board

Philadelphia artist Ryan Trecartin, just 28, has hit the jackpot this year. Several days ago, he won the inaugural Wolgin Prize, $150,000 awarded by the Tyler School of Art at Temple University and claimed as the largest prize to a visual artist in a juried competition. The Temple Times has the story here.

On Thursday night, he won the “Calvin Klein Collection New Artist of the Year Award” at Rob Pruitt’s First Annual Art Awards at the Guggenheim. And earlier this year, he won a fellowship awarded by the Pew Charitable Trusts. 

Trecartin’s work has been show in the 2006 Whitney Biennial, the New Museum, the Getty Museum and at the Royal Academy and the Saatchi Gallery in London.

Guess we’ll be hearing more about him.

Photo: Re’Search Wait’S (Edit 1: Missing Re’Search Corruption Budget), 2009, Courtesy Ryan Trecartin and Elizabeth Dee

 

It’ll never happen here, and it probably shouldn’t. But as the publishing business teeters ever closer to failure, with profit margins shrinking and sales declining, it’s interesting to look at the situation in Germany.

The Wall Street Journal has the stories in today’s paper. First, there’s one about Wal-Mart, Amazon.com and Target putting a limit on bulk sales customers may buy of the deeply discounted books they’re now selling. At Wal-Mart, it’s two copies; Amazon, three, and Target, five. They suspect small booksellers of “scooping up” cheap copies and reselling them. Here’s the link.

More interesting is the companion article about Germany, where book prices are set. There, and in most of Europe other than Britain, bookstores and online booksellers must sell books at the price established by publishers. As a result:

Many in German attribute the country’s thriving literary and publishing scene to a system that outlaws the discounting of virtually all new books for 18 months. The system protects independent booksellers and smaller publishers from giant rivals that could discount their way to more market share. Along with 7,000 bookshops, nearly 14,000 German publishers remain in business. Many are of modest size, like Munich-based Carl Hanser Verlag, which publishes the work of this year’s Nobel laureate, German-Romanian writer Herta Mueller.  

[Read more…] about How To Save The Books Business

Yesterday’s Lexington, Ky. Herald-Leader printed one of those occasional stories about an art find that cheers the spirit and keeps many people buying old paintings. This one isn’t anywhere near as good as the recent disclosure that a small picture of a young girl (right), purchased for less than $20,000, may be a Leonardo.   

But still. In this case, a doctor — against the advice of his wife — decided to plunk down $900 for a landscape he saw in an antiques store. It was dirty, and when he had it cleaned, the restorer discovered a signature: Robert Scott Duncanson, a painter the Herald-Leader said was “a noted 19th-century artist who was the first African-American painter to gain international recognition.”

Good for the buyer, Dr. Jim Huffman, for going with his instincts. The untitled painting (left) is said to be worth $100,000 and is now on loan to the Speed Art Museum.

Again, good for Huffman, who was described in the article as an “amateur collector.” I’m not sure what that means, because not that many collectors are “professionals.” But if it means that he’s untrained, which probably means self-trained, he has plenty of company.

At least he seems to have a good eye — an attribute not all professionals have, let alone all collectors. One expert, a museum director now who (I think) happens to have a great eye, once joked with me about people in the art world — collectors and dealers alike — who just don’t have it. His description of them, probably not unique or original to him, was “he has the eye of a vole.” I still love that. Lucky are those that are born with a great eye — and nurture it.  

Here’s the link to the Herald-Leader article. 

At last, the White House is ready to take on classical music in its series of music events. Next Wednesday, following the pattern it set with jazz (also here) and then with country music (also here), Michelle Obama will convene a student workshop at 2:25 in the afternoon, followed by an evening concert attended by the President — and probably the girls.

So who’s performing? The stars, in the evening, are violinist Joshua Bell, guitarist Sharon Isbin, cellist Alisa Weilerstein (left) and pianist Awadagin Pratt.

They will also perform at the workshop, along with two child proteges: Sujari Britt, who plays the violoncello, and Jason Yoder, a percussionist, who will accompany Weilerstein in duets.

The White House guidance says the evening performance will be streamed live on WhiteHouse.gov and will air on Sirius radio. And it says there will also be other workshops early in the afternoon focusing on piano, violin, cello and classical guitar for 120 middle and high school students coming in from around the country.

I find these choices very interesting — none of the performers is associated with one orchestra. None, I think, plays only classical music. Yoder attends the CAPA school in Pittsburgh, and played for the spouses of the leaders attending the summit there in September.

And it’s not clear which classical music organization, if any, helped plan this — as, for example, Jazz At Lincoln Center and the Country Music Association, among others, have for previous events.   

The word from the White House does not say what these performers will play, but it may be telling.