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Rob Pruitt’s 2010 Art Awards |
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The Awards Gala.
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At an awards ceremony and dinner on December 8, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum announced the winners of Rob Pruitt’s 2010 Art Awards, the second annual celebration honoring notable individuals, exhibitions, and projects that made a significant contribution to the field of contemporary art during the past year. Awards in 15 categories were presented at a fundraising event benefiting the Guggenheim Foundation and visual arts nonprofit White Columns on Wednesday, December 8, 2010, at the nightclub and music venue Webster Hall.
Artist Rob Pruitt, whose conceptual practice is rooted in a pop sensibility and a playful critique of art-world structures, conceived the event as a performance-based artwork that follows the format of a Hollywood awards ceremony. Designed with a flourish of showbiz glamour, the Art Awards harness the energy and accomplishments of the international arts community while simultaneously supporting two of its institutions.
A group of more than 1,000 artists and arts professionals were invited to form an anonymous Art Awards Council to nominate and then vote upon four nominees in categories that focus primarily on exhibitions and projects that took place over the past year (July 2009 to July 2010), in the United States, as well as one category recognizing an international exhibition. The Rob Pruitt Award was decided solely by the artist. The winners for each category are:
Alternative Space of the Year: Artists Space, New York
Alternative Project of the Year: INDEPENDENT, New York
Artist of the Year: Louise Bourgeois
Blogger or Critic of the Year: Jerry Saltz
Curator of the Year: Chrissie Iles
Exhibition outside the United States: John Baldessari: Pure Beauty, Tate Modern, London (in association with Los Angeles County Museum of Art)
Group Show of the Year, Gallery: Primary Atmospheres: Works from California 1960–1970, David Zwirner, New York
Group Show of the Year, Museum: In & Out of Amsterdam: Travels in Conceptual Art, 1960–1976, Museum of Modern Art, New York
New Artist of the Year: Tauba Auerbach
The Rob Pruitt Award: Lena Dunham
Solo Show of the Year, Gallery: Trisha Donnelly, Casey Kaplan Gallery, New York
Solo Show of the Year, Museum: Marina Abramovic: The Artist Is Present, Museum of Modern Art, New York
In addition, Lifetime Achievement Awards were awarded to Jonas Mekas and Martha Rosler. The Artist-Educator Achievement Award, a new distinction added for this year’s celebration, was presented to Marilyn Minter.
Writer, editor, and downtown fixture Glenn O’Brien presided over the event as the Master of Ceremonies. The event script was penned by Pruitt and O’Brien, along with writers David Colman, Amy Kellner, and Linda Yablonsky. The awards—black-and-white silk-screened paintings of an engraved trophy designed by Pruitt—were distributed by a distinguished cast of presenters, including Bill Powers, Jeanne Greenberg Rohatyn, and Jerry Saltz of the Bravo television series Work of Art; musician Michael Stipe and Michael Ward Stout, President, Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation; Mary Heilmann, the 2009 “Artist of the Year”; artist Marina Abramovic and Klaus Biesenbach, Director of MoMA P.S. 1; artists John Currin and Rachel Feinstein; artists Lizzie Bougatsos and Spencer Sweeney; Nancy Spector, Deputy Director and Chief Curator, Guggenheim Museum; and Matthew Higgs, Director, White Columns, among others.
The evening also featured performances by artists Martin Creed and Kalup Linzy. The commissioned Art Awards theme song and other original music were composed by Matthew Friedberger and His Orchestra, who played at the event. Tribute films created by Yorgo Alexopoulos were screened as part of the ceremony. Dinner was provided by Roberta’s, of Bushwick, Brooklyn. Table décor was created by Pruitt along with fellow artists John Baldessari, Terence Koh, Jeff Koons, and Josh Smith. An after-party following the presentation featured music by Rub-N-Tug.
Proceeds from the 2010 Art Awards will benefit the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation and White Columns.
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Jennifer Stockman and Rob Pruitt.
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James Franco.
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Marilyn Minter.
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Amy Phelan.
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Paz de la Huerta.
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Michael Stipe.
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Kalup Linzy and James Franco.
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Marina Abramovic and Klaus Biesenbach.
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Jerry Saltz and Bill Powers.
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Ari Wiseman and Douglas Friedman.
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Olympia Scarry and Piper Marshall.
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| Photos: Roger Kisby |
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