Winners The inaugural Whitney Collection Award, given in recognition of an individual who has shown an exceptional commitment to expanding the Whitney Museum of American Art’s collection and to advancing America’s cultural heritage, has been presented to Leonard A. Lauder. Lauder is the New York museum’s chairman emeritus and has been a major benefactor for four decades. The Whitney’s new building has been named in his honour.
Ellsworth Kelly has been posthumously awarded the annual J. Paul Getty Medal. The prize was established in 2013 by the trustees of the J. Paul Getty Trust to reward extraordinary contributions to the practice, understanding and support of the arts.
The second EYE Art and Film Prize has been awarded to the London-based artist and film-maker Ben Rivers. He receives £25,000 to fund the making of new work.
Theaster Gates has been named the winner of the 2017 Kurt Schwitters Prize. He receives €25,000, and the Sprengel Museum in Hanover will host the artist’s first solo exhibition in Germany.
The Spanish architect Rafael Moneo has won Spain’s €60,000 National Architecture Prize. Moneo won the Pritzker Architecture Prize in 1996, the RIBA Royal Gold Medal in 2003 and the Prince of Asturias Award for the Arts in 2012. His designs include the award-winning Kursaal Centre in San Sebastián and the Museo del Prado’s extension in 2007.
Klaus Biesenbach, the chief curator-at-large of New York’s Museum of Modern Art and the director of MoMA PS1, has received the German Cross of the Order of Merit. The award is given in recognition of “achievements that served the rebuilding of the country in the fields of political, socio-economic and intellectual activity”.
Shortlists The four nominees for the inaugural Hepworth Prize for Sculpture are Phyllida Barlow, Steven Claydon, Helen Marten and David Medalla. The finalists will present their work in an exhibition at the Hepworth Wakefield later this year (21 October-22 January 2017). The winner is due to be announced in November.
News The media executive, philanthropist and Tate trustee Elisabeth Murdoch has launched the £100,000 Freelands Artist Award. The annual prize will enable a regional arts organisation to present an exhibition, including a significant new work, by a mid-career, UK-based female artist. A shortlist of six organisations will be announced this summer. The winner is due to be named in the autumn.
The Vincent Award, one of the most prestigious prizes for contemporary art in Europe, has been cancelled this year after two artists pulled out, one citing a legal row between the Danish-Vietnamese artist Danh Vo and the Dutch art collector Bert Kreuk. The next edition of the award is due to take place in 2018.