Dallas’s Nasher Sculpture Center has created a new international award to recognize outstanding contributions in the field of sculpture. The $100,000 prize will be presented annually to a living artist whose body of work over the course of their career has had a significant impact on the art form.
The winner of the inaugural prize will be named in the fall, with an award ceremony to be held in Dallas on April 2, 2016. The honor is a natural fit for the Texas institution, which is devoted to exhibiting and studying modern and contemporary sculpture, as it will continue to promote the museum’s mission of fostering a greater understanding and appreciation of the field.
“Today sculpture stands at the center of public discussion and debate, even as it remains a source of profound private experience” said the museum’s director, Jeremy Strick, in a statement. “This is truly an exceptional moment for sculpture, and an international prize recognizing outstanding contributions to the field can bring focus and depth to the conversation, highlighting the achievements of the most important artists of our time, and adding to the understanding of the significance of their work. The Nasher Sculpture Center is especially well-positioned to inaugurate this award, and we are delighted to embrace this important new role.”
The inaugural jury panel will comprise sculptor Phyllida Barlow; Lynne Cooke, a senior curator at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC; Okwui Enwezor, director of Munich’s Haus der Kunst and curator of the upcoming Venice Biennale (see Venice Biennale Curator Okwui Enwezor On “All the World’s Futures,” Karl Marx, and the Havana Biennial Boycott); Yuko Hasegawa, the Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo‘s chief curator; founding Nasher director Steven Nash; art historian Alexander Potts; and Nicholas Serota, director of London’s Tate. Candidates will be nominated by their peers, under Strick’s moderation.