T he highly endowed European art price of the “Roswitha Haftmann-Price”, goes to Richard Artschwager. The special price for filmmaker Jonas Mekas. For 2007 the Foundation Board of the „Roswitha Haftmann-Stiftung“ has given the Roswitha Haftmann Price of CHF 150'000. – to the painter, sculptor and illustrator Richard Artschwager and awarded the filmmaker Jonas Mekas with a special price for CHF 75'000. –. The award ceremony will take place on the 15th of November 2007 at the Kunsthaus Zürich.
The American object artist, painter, graphic designer and sculptor Richard Artschwager(*1924) is working for over 50 years on an independent act, which agitates between painting, sculpture and installation and which in particular is reflecting the terms of perception. Artschwager did enrich the plastic art with more facets and showed perspectives, which were taken over and advanced by numerous young artists.
In recognition of this extraordinary artistic achievement, the Foundation Board of the Roswitha Haftmann-Price awarded him this price for the year 2007.
The vicinity and the differentiation of contemporaneous genres like Minimal, Pop and Concept Art can only understand his artistic development. However, his works – which are sculpture and furniture or drawing and reproduction - cannot be allocated to any of these trends. In Artschwagers’ art the borders between abstraction and objective design are blurred – he is abandoning the individual hand and sensual colorfulness in favor of a clear form and statement. He is proving the perception and viewing habits by deconstructing familiar forms and imitating common material.
«My aim is», as the artist wrote in 1965, «to accomplish my work with features of grace, beauty, monumentality, reverence, purposefulness, sense for the eternal, purity, truth, handicraft, meaningful form, stability, honesty and power – respectively for oneself or in connection with others». This doubtlessly high aim was followed by Artschwager in the past decades insistently and – as the jury unanimous confirmed, with consequence and high plastic as well intellectual quality.
VITAE RICHARD ARTSCHWAGER
From 1948 to 1950 Artschwager attended the „Amédée Ozenfant Studio School“ in New York. He made his living at the beginning by designing furniture. His first exhibition took place in 1965 at the gallery owner Leo Castelli in New York. Since then Artschwager was invited to be present at exhibitions in the US and in Europe, among others many times to the Dokumenta in Kassel, Germany. In 1985 The Kunsthalle Basel showed Artschwagers’ works for the first time in Switzerland. The city Vienna (Austria) awarded him in 1987 with the Kokoschka-Price und the Whitney Museum of Modern Art, New York, honored the artist in 1988 with a broad retrospective. His works are represented at important collections. The Kölner Museum Ludwig is planning for 2008 an exhibition of Artschwager, who is now awarded with the highly endowed European art price.
SPECIAL PRICE FOR FILM MAKER JONAS MEKASA
special price of £CHF 75'000. – Has been awarded by the Roswitha Haftmann-Stiftung to the Litauen-born filmmaker Jonas Mekas (*1922). Mekas invented in the mid 60-ies the genre «Filmtagebuch» (movie diary). He is portraying the new Yorker Avant-garde-Art-Scene as well as his own private environment with cinematic means of double-exposure, the cut-up method and the manipulated film speed. His first movie «Walden», filmed in 6 episodes between 1964 and 1969, is symptomatic for the new genre, because it is combining attributes of the documentation, the film-essays and the artist videos.
Mekas was – before that time –known as the founder and chief editor of the journal «Film Culture”. The speaking tube of the classic author cinemas, founded in 1955 in New York, became begin of the sixties the forum of the experimental film. Mekas became a cameraman and movie director, as he says, „by self-defense“. Without the intention of ever making a film, he was writing a cinematic diary of the life of Pop Art artist Andy Warhol. With an amateur camera he followed Andy Warhol to parties, vernissages and excursions. Later he cut the film material of the years 1965 to 1982 and formed it to a fancy experimental documentary movie. Without comments, only under laid with music of Velvet Underground of the 60-ies, Mekas introduced authentic scenes of Warhol’s’ life.
1970 Mekas founded the «Anthology Film Archive» and the «Invisible Cinema» in Greenwich Village, the latter a program cinema, which celebrates the film as a medium of art – free from its derivation of the mass and entertainment industry. In the meantime not only the filmmakers, but also the movie and art historian are geared to the scales set by Mekas. In museums, such as the Museum of Modern Art, New York, or the Kunsthaus Zürich, Mekas-films belong to the basis of the own collection. His art is spread in-group and single exhibitions until today.
THE FOUNDATION AND THE LAUREATES
Artschwager and Mekas both live today in New York. They have famous ancestors in the still young history of the Roswitha Haftmann-Price. Roswitha Haftmann (1927-1998), who 1949 lived as well for a certain time of her life in New York, had a gallery in Zürich until she died. She invested her fortune into a fond, which finances the awards of the Roswitha Haftmann-Price. The price was given the first time in 2001 to Walter de Maria.Then followed by Maria Lassnig, Jeff Wall, Mona Hatoum, Robert Ryman as well as Peter Fischli and David Weiss.
The Foundation gives the price all one to three years to an alive artist, whose works have to be from utmost importance. The amount of CHF 150'000. – Is one of the highest art prices in Europe. The board of foundation defines the laureates. It consists of the directors of the Kunstmuseums Bern, the Kunstmuseums Basel, and the Museum Ludwig in Köln and the Kunsthaus Zürich. In addition the members, who are named in the foundation letter personally or which does the board of the foundation nominate.
Further Information on the foundation, the jury, the price and the laureates on: www.roswithahaftmannstiftung.com. The award ceremony takes place on the 15th November 2007 at the Kinshasa Zürich – exclusive guests. Laudatory is Prof. Caspar König of the Museum Ludwig, Köln, Germany.
For further information and picture material please contact: Björn Quellenberg
+41 (0)44 253 84 11
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