Programs » Awards for Distinction
Distinguished Lifetime Achievement Award for Writing on Art
The Distinguished Lifetime Achievement Award for Writing on Art, established in 2003, celebrates the career of an author of note and includes art criticism, art history, art biography, and/or art theory. The award is presented to an author who, among other distinctions, has demonstrated particular commitment to their work throughout a long career and has had an impact, nationally and internationally, on the field.
2022 WINNER
Wu Hung
Trained in both China and the United States, Wu Hung’s writing brings perspectives native to both cultures to bear on aesthetics, art history, and archaeology. His arguments ground the cultures of China, from the earliest ancient survivals to the interventions of our own time in structures of mind that defy the progress narratives of the West. He has received countless awards for work that has transformed the study of East Asian art and drawn attention to the relationship between images and the spaces within which they are observed, from the Dunhuang caves to the double screens to Zhu Jinshi’s Fangzhen: A Cubic Meter of Canvas in Berlin.
Overall, his writings explore the many, restless transitions across time and space. Perpetually interested in the shape of time, in relation to the time of the world, he has authored many books, essays, and exhibition catalogues that bring Chinese visual culture into different orders of focus, taking into account the changing conditions of tombs, screens, performances, and protests. The scope of his work has an epic quality, allowing arguments to unfold across centuries without losing sight of the very human presence of artists and audiences. He works in the discipline of art history as a poet-scholar who knows the brushstroke from the inside out, crafting prose of great clarity and nuance that opens the field to specialists and new readers alike.
Committee:
Shirin Fozi, University of Pittsburgh (Chair)
Joseph Masheck, Hofstra University
Molly Nesbit, Vassar College
PAST WINNERS
Although the Distinguished Lifetime Achievement Award for Writing on Art was established fairly recently, the award juries have honored the writing careers of notable luminaries in the field, including Hans Belting, Oleg Grabar, Georges Didi-Huberman, and John Berger.
2021 Deborah Willis and Kenneth Frampton
Jury: Shirin Fozi, University of Pittsburgh, chair; Molly Nesbit, Vassar College; Joseph Mascheck, Hofstra University; and Kimberly Musial Datchuk, University of Iowa Stanley Museum of Art.
2020 Joseph Leo Koerner
Jury: Shirin Fozi, University of Pittsburgh, chair; Molly Nesbit, Vassar College; and Joseph Masheck, Hofstra University.
2019 Molly Nesbit
Jury: Jelena Bogdanović, Iowa State University, chair; Jongwoo Jeremy Kim, University of Louisville; Anna Novakov, St. Mary’s College of California
2018 Joseph Masheck
Jury: Jelena Bogdanović, Iowa State University, chair; Anna Novakov, St. Mary’s College of California; and Jongwoo Jeremy Kim, University of Louisville.
2017 This award was not given in 2017.
Jury: Ellen T. Birrell, California Institute of the Arts and X-TRA, chair; Jelena Bogdanović, Iowa State University; and Jongwoo Jeremy Kim, University of Louisville.
2016 Rosalind E. Krauss
Jury: Michael Brenson, Independent Scholar, chair; Ellen T. Birrell, California Institute of the Arts and X-TRA; and Rebecca Zorach, University of Chicago
2015 Lucy R. Lippard
Jury: Michael Brenson, independent scholar, chair; Ellen T. Birrell, California Institute of the Arts; and Rebecca Zorach, University of Chicago.
2014 John Berger
Jury: Thomas Lawson, California Institute of the Arts, chair; Michael Brenson, independent scholar; and Rebecca Zorach, University of Chicago
2013 T. J. Clark
Jury: Catherine Soussloff, University of British Columbia, chair; Lane Relyea, Northwestern University; and Thomas Lawson, California Institute of the Arts
2012 Allan Sekula
Jury: Catherine Soussloff, University of British Columbia, chair; Lane Relyea, Northwestern University; and Thomas Lawson, California Institute of the Arts
2011 Mieke Bal
Jury: Keith Moxey, Barnard College, Columbia University, chair; Lane Relyea, Northwestern University; and Catherine Soussloff, University of British Columbia
2010 Holland Cotter
Jury: Janet Kaplan, Moore College of Art and Design, chair; S. Hollis Clayson, Northwestern University; and Keith Moxey, Barnard College, Columbia University
2009 Georges Didi-Huberman
Jury: Janet Kaplan, Moore College of Art and Design, chair; S. Hollis Clayson, Northwestern University; and Keith Moxey, Barnard College, Columbia University
2008 Robert L. Herbert
Jury: John Beldon Scott, University of Iowa, chair; S. Hollis Clayson, Northwestern University; and Janet Kaplan, Moore College of Art and Design
2007 James Cahill
Jury: John Beldon Scott, University of Iowa, chair; Larry Silver, University of Pennsylvania; and Suzanne Preston Blier, Harvard University
2006 Linda Nochlin
Jury: Katherine Manthorne, Graduate Center, City University of New York, chair; Suzanne Preston Blier, Harvard University Art Museums; John Beldon Scott, University of Iowa; and Larry Silver, University of Pennsylvania
2005 Oleg Grabar
Committee: Katherine Manthorne, Graduate Center, City University of New York, chair; Terrie F. Sultan, Blaffer Gallery, Art Museum of the University of Houston; Larry Silver, University of Pennsylvania; John Beldon Scott, University of Iowa; and Suzanne Preston Blier, Harvard University
2004 Hans Belting
Committee: Jonathan Fineberg, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, chair; Katherine Manthorne, Graduate Center, City University of New York; Katy Siegel, Hunter College, City University of New York; and Terrie Sultan, University of Houston
2003 Robert Farris Thompson
Committee: Jonathan Fineberg, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, chair; Janet Kaplan, Moore College of
Art and Design; Katy Siegel, Hunter College, City University of New York; Kenneth E. Silver, New York University; and Terrie Sultan, University of Houston