Hans-Peter Feldmann Named Winner of Eighth Biennial Hugo Boss Prize

NEW YORK, NY – – The Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation and HUGO BOSS AG announced last night that German artist Hans-Peter Feldmann has been named the winner of THE HUGO BOSS PRIZE 2010. Feldmann is the eighth artist to win the biennial honor, which was established in 1996 to recognize significant achievement in contemporary art. The prize carries an award of $100,000 and is administered by the Guggenheim Foundation.

A jury comprising a distinguished international panel of museum directors and curators selected Feldmann from a group of six short-listed artists, which included Cao Fei, Roman Ondák, Walid Raad, Natascha Sadr Haghighian, and Apichatpong Weerasethakul. An exhibition of the prizewinner’s work will be on view at the Guggenheim Museum from May 20 through September 5, 2011.

“First conferred 14 years ago, THE HUGO BOSS PRIZE now ranks among the most prestigious awards in the world of contemporary art,” said Claus-Dietrich Lahrs, CEO and Chairman of HUGO BOSS. “We would like to congratulate the winner, Hans-Peter Feldmann, and thank the jury and the Guggenheim Museum for their collaboration and commitment to promoting the most significant art of our time.”

“THE HUGO BOSS PRIZE allows us to celebrate the work of today’s most innovative artists, and is firmly established as an integral element of the Guggenheim’s programming,” said Richard Armstrong, Director of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation and Museum. “We are delighted that Hans-Peter Feldmann is the latest recipient of the award and are deeply grateful to HUGO BOSS for its inspired support of this renowned accolade for contemporary art.”

Feldmann (b. 1941, Düsseldorf) lives and works in Düsseldorf. His seminal work calls attention to visual culture by gathering images and everyday objects appropriated from disparate commercial and domestic sources and presenting them in serial form or other carefully orchestrated installations. Feldmann’s work has been shown in numerous institutions around the world, including solo exhibitions at the Museo nacional centro de arte Reina Sofía, Madrid (2010–11); Malmö Konsthall, Sweden (2010); Sprengel Museum Hannover in Germany and traveling to Arnolfini in Bristol, UK, and Landesgalerie Oberösterreich, Oberösterreichische Landesmuseen in Linz, Austria (2007–08); Kunsthalle Wien, Vienna (2007); Contemporary Art Gallery, Vancouver (2006); P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center, Long Island City (2004–05); Fundación Antoni Tàpies in Barcelona, Centre national de la photographie in Paris, Fotomuseum Winterthur in Switzerland, and Museum Ludwig in Cologne (2001–03); Museum Folkwang, Essen, Germany (2001); Grazer Kunstverein, Graz, Austria (1999); Musée d’art moderne de la Ville de Paris (1992); Kunstverein Heinsberg, Germany (1991); Neuer Aachener Kunstverein, Aachen, Germany (1991); Kunstverein München, Munich (1990); Portikus, Frankfurt (1989); Museum Folkwang, Essen, Germany (1977); and Kunstraum München, Munich (1975). Feldmann was awarded the eighth Benesse Prize at the 53rd Venice Biennale in 2009.

This year marks the eighth presentation of THE HUGO BOSS PRIZE at the Guggenheim Museum. Since its inception in 1996, it has been awarded to American artist Matthew Barney (1996), Scottish artist Douglas Gordon (1998), Slovenian artist Marjetica Potrč (2000), French artist Pierre Huyghe (2002), Thai artist Rirkrit Tiravanija (2004), British artist Tacita Dean (2006), and Palestinian artist Emily Jacir (2008). Previous finalists have included Laurie Anderson, Janine Antoni, Cai Guo-Qiang, Stan Douglas, and Yasumasa Morimura in 1996; Huang Yong Ping, William Kentridge, Lee Bul, Pipilotti Rist, and Lorna Simpson in 1998; Vito Acconci, Maurizio Cattelan, Michael Elmgreen and Ingar Dragset, Tom Friedman, Barry Le Va, and Tunga in 2000; Francis Alÿs, Olafur Eliasson, Hachiya Kazuhiko, Koo Jeong-a, and Anri Sala in 2002; Franz Ackermann, Rivane Neuenschwander, Jeroen de Rijke and Willem de Rooij, Simon Starling, and Yang Fudong in 2004; Jennifer Allora & Guillermo Calzadilla, John Bock, Damián Ortega, Aïda Ruilova, and Tino Sehgal in 2006; and Christoph Büchel, Patty Chang, Sam Durant, Joachim Koester, and Roman Signer in 2008.

The jury for the 2010 prize was chaired by Nancy Spector, Deputy Director and Chief Curator, Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, and the jurors were Udo Kittelmann, Director, Nationalgalerie, Berlin; Alexandra Munroe, Samsung Senior Curator of Asian Art, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum; Yasmil Raymond, Curator, Dia Art Foundation, New York; Joan Young, Associate Curator of Contemporary Art and Manager of Curatorial Affairs, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum; and Tirdad Zolghadr, independent writer and curator.

In the official award statement, the jury described its selection: “Our global age is defined by the virulent power of the images that saturate our everyday social and political spheres. In this context, German artist Hans-Peter Feldmann’s long-standing engagement with personal, archival, and mass-media imagery takes on a new, surreptitious relevance. His obsessive accumulation of objects and images amounts to a tremendous ongoing project of cataloguing the multiplicity of potential meanings present in the world around us. Although he has been practicing for over four decades and has been a key influence on generations of younger artists, Feldmann’s work exhibits a vitality and keen originality that places it among the most compelling work being produced today. It is this critical engagement with the moment that we recognize in awarding him THE HUGO BOSS PRIZE 2010.”


Publication
In conjunction with THE HUGO BOSS PRIZE 2010, the Guggenheim has published a catalogue that explores the work of the 2010 finalists and features a specially commissioned project by each artist. The catalogue, designed by Project Projects, includes essays by Maria Lind, Jessica Morgan, Yasmil Raymond, Angeline Scherf, Helena Tatay, and Kaelen Wilson-Goldie, with an introduction by Katherine Brinson, Assistant Curator, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum. It is available for $19.95.


About HUGO BOSS AG
Since 1995 HUGO BOSS has provided critical support to many Guggenheim programs. In addition to THE HUGO BOSS PRIZE, the company has helped make possible retrospectives of the work of Matthew Barney (2003), Georg Baselitz (1995), Ross Bleckner (1995), Francesco Clemente (1999– 2000), Ellsworth Kelly (1996–97), Robert Rauschenberg (1997–98), and James Rosenquist (2003–04); the presentation Art in America: Now (2007) in Shanghai; the Felix Gonzalez-Torres (2007) and Ed Ruscha (2005) exhibitions in the U.S. Pavilion of the Venice Biennale; and the exhibitiontheanyspacewhatever (2008–09) at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum. For more information about the prize, visit hugoboss.com/hugobossprize.


About the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation
Founded in 1937, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation is dedicated to promoting the understanding and appreciation of art, primarily of the modern and contemporary periods, through exhibitions, education programs, research initiatives, and publications. Currently the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation owns and operates the Guggenheim Museum on Fifth Avenue in New York and the Peggy Guggenheim Collection on the Grand Canal in Venice, and provides programming and management for the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao. The Deutsche Guggenheim in Berlin is the result of a collaboration, begun in 1997, between the Guggenheim Foundation and Deutsche Bank. In 2013, the Guggenheim Abu Dhabi, a 452,000-square-foot museum of modern and contemporary art designed by Frank Gehry, will open on Saadiyat Island, adjacent to the main island of Abu Dhabi city, the capital of the United Arab Emirates.