Guggenheim Museum Announces Nominees for Rob Pruitt's 2010 Art Awards

Yves Klein, “Untitled Blue Sponge Sculpture (SE 89),” c. 1960. Private Collection. © 2010 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York/ADAGP, Paris. Image courtesy Yves Klein Archives.

NEW YORK, NY.- The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum announced the nominees for Rob Pruitt’s 2010 Art Awards, the second annual celebration honoring the notable individuals, exhibitions, and projects that have made a significant contribution to the field of contemporary art during the past year. Awards in 14 categories will be presented at a fundraising event to benefit the Guggenheim Foundation and visual arts non-profit 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 which follows the format of a Hollywood awards ceremony. Designed by Pruitt with a flourish of showbiz glamour, the Art Awards harnesses the energy and accomplishments of the international arts community while simultaneously supporting two of its institutions.

Pruitt has invited writer, editor, and downtown fixture Glenn O’Brien to preside over the event as the Master of Ceremonies. Pruitt and O’Brien, along with writers David Colman and Linda Yablonsky, are penning the event script. A distinguished cast of presenters will participate in distributing award statuettes designed by Pruitt, including Bill Powers, Jeanne Greenberg Rohatyn, and Jerry Saltz of the television series Work of Art, who will announce “New Artist of the Year”; Mary Heilmann, the 2009 “Artist of the Year,” who will announce the winner in that category; artist Marina Abramovic with Klaus Biesenbach, Director of MoMA PS1; artists John Currin and Rachel Feinstein; Richard Armstrong, Director, Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation and Museum; and Matthew Higgs, Director, White Columns, among others.

The evening will also feature performances by artists Martin Creed and Kalup Linzy, and surprise guest appearances. The commissioned Art Awards theme song and other original music are composed by Matthew Friedberger and His Orchestra, who will play at the event. Tribute films created by Yorgo Alexopoulos will be screened as part of the ceremony. Dinner will be provided by Roberta’s, of Bushwick, Brooklyn. An after-party following the presentation will feature music by Rub-N-Tug.

Lifetime Achievement Awards, determined by Rob Pruitt along with organizing partners the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum and White Columns, will be awarded to Jonas Mekas and Martha Rosler. The Artist-Educator Achievement Award, a new distinction added for this year’s celebration, will be presented to Marilyn Minter.

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 is being decided solely by the artist. The winners in each of the twelve categories—in addition to the three Achievement Awards—will be announced at the live awards ceremony on December 8 at Webster Hall. The nominees for each category are:

Alternative Space of the Year
• 179 Canal, New York
• Artists Space, New York
• Cleopatra’s, Brooklyn, New York
• Light Industry, Brooklyn, New York

Alternative Project of the Year
• Apartment Show, various locations, New York
• edia Int'l Group, Foundation Barbin, New York
• INDEPENDENT, New York
• Jennifer Rubell, Creation, Performa 09, New York

Artist of the Year
• Marina Abramovic
• John Baldessari
• Louise Bourgeois
• Trisha Donnelly

Blogger or Critic of the Year
• Howard Halle
• Paddy Johnson
• Jerry Saltz
• Linda Yablonsky

Curator of the Year
• Massimiliano Gioni
• Laura Hoptman
• Chrissie Iles
• Neville Wakefield

Exhibition outside the United States
• John Baldessari: Pure Beauty, Tate Modern, London
• Rosemarie Trockel: Deliquescence of the Mother, Kunsthalle Zürich
• Felix Gonzalez-Torres: Specific Objects without Specific Form, Wiels Contemporary Art Centre, Brussels
• Matthew Barney: Prayer Sheet with the Wound and the Nail, Schaulager, Basel

Group Show of the Year, Gallery
• Lush Life, various locations, New York
• Picture Industry (Goodbye to All That), Regen Projects, Los Angeles
• Primary Atmospheres: Works from California 1960–1970, David Zwirner, New York
• Your History Is Not Our History: New York in the 1980s, Haunch of Venison, New York

Group Show of the Year, Museum
• At Home/Not At Home: Works from the Collection of Martin and Rebecca Eisenberg, Hessel Museum of Art, Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson, New York
• Greater New York, P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center, Long Island City, New York
• In & Out of Amsterdam: Travels in Conceptual Art, 1960–1976, Museum of Modern Art, New York
• 2010 Whitney Biennial Exhibition, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York

New Artist of the Year
• Michele Abeles
• Tauba Auerbach
• Liz Magic Laser
• Ryan McNamara

The Rob Pruitt Award
• To be announced the evening of December 8, 2010

Solo Show of the Year, Gallery
• Claude Monet: Late Work, Gagosian Gallery, New York
• Gelitin: Blind Sculpture, Greene Naftali Gallery, New York
• Jonathan Horowitz: Go Vegan! Gavin Brown’s Enterprise, New York
• 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
• Heat Waves in a Swamp: The Paintings of Charles Burchfield, Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, and Whitney Museum of American Art, New York
• Otto Dix, Neue Galerie, New York
• Yves Klein: With the Void, Full Powers, Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C., and Walker Art Center, Minneapolis

Proceeds from the 2010 Art Awards will benefit the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation and White Columns. Please visit guggenheim.org/artawards for information on ticket sales, event updates, and an overview of the inaugural Art Awards. Video highlights from the ceremony will be posted on the Guggenheim’s website after the event.


Rob Pruitt (b. 1964, Washington, D.C.) lives and works in New York. His recent solo exhibitions include Pattern and Degradation (September–October 2010) at Gavin Brown’s Enterprise and Maccarone in New York; and iPruitt (2008) at Gavin Brown’s Enterprise. Institutions that have organized solo presentations of his work include the Contemporary Art Center, Cincinnati (2001), and the American Academy in Rome (2008). He has also participated in numerous group exhibitions internationally, including Greater New York, P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center, Long Island City (2000); Post-POP, Post-PUNK, Museum of Contemporary Art, Washington, D.C. (2000); Protest and Survive, Whitechapel Art Gallery, London (2000); Vantage Point, Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin (2001); The Americans New Art, Barbican Gallery, London (2001); Shanghai Biennale, Shanghai Art Museum (2002); Trade, White Columns, New York (2005); Seeing Double, Andy Warhol Museum, Pittsburgh (2005); General Ideas: Rethinking Conceptual Art 1987–2005, CCA Wattis Institute for Contemporary Arts, San Francisco (2005); The Inside Game, Portland Art Center (2006); The Station, Art Basel Miami (2008); Mapping the Studio, Palazzo Grassi (2009); and Pop Life: Art in a Material World, Tate Modern, London (2009).

Otto Dix, Group Portrait: Günther Franke, Paul Ferdinand Schmidt, and Karl Nierendorf, 1923. Oil on canvas. Staatliche Museen Preußischer Kulturbesitz, Nationalgalerie Berlin © Estate of Otto Dix / SODRAC (2010). Photo Jörg P. Anders/Bildarchiv Preussischer Kulturbesitz / Art Resource, NY.