Carnegie Prize

For the Swedish art award, see Carnegie Art Award.

The Carnegie Prize is an international art prize awarded by the Carnegie Museum of Art in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. It currently consists of a $10,000 cash prize accompanied by a gold medal.

Carnegie Gold Medal of Honor (1896)

History

The Carnegie Prize was established in 1896, to recognize the best painting shown in the first annual exhibition of the Museum of Art, Carnegie Institute. Unlike most American annual exhibitions, which were limited to artists born or resident in the United States, the Carnegie exhibitions were international.^[1] To attract top painters from home and abroad, the Carnegie exhibitions offered high cash prizes—$1,500 for the First Class winner, $1,000 for the Second-Class winner and $500 for the Third-Class winner. The First-Class winner's cash prize was accompanied by the Carnegie Gold Medal of Honor (1896), designed by Tiffany & Co. and cast by J.E. Caldwell & Co. Often, especially in the early years, the prize-winning painting was purchased for the museum's permanent collection.^[1]

The exhibition has undergone a series of name changes and transformations—adding a gold medal for sculpture (beginning in 1958),^[2] and going from a schedule of every year to every second or third year, and now, to every fourth or fifth year. The exhibitions in the late 1970s were retrospectives of established artists. In 1982, the exhibition was renamed the Carnegie International, and returned to its original mission of showing recent works by a host of artists. In 1985, the Carnegie Prize was refocused to recognize not just a single work of art but an honoree's entire body of work.^[1] In the 1990s, the exhibition expanded to include non-traditional artists and filmmakers.

As of 2019, 67 Carnegie Prizes had been awarded and one was refused (Irish painter Francis Bacon, 1967).^[3] The Spanish sculptor Eduardo Chillida was awarded it twice (1964 for an individual sculpture, 1979 for his body of work). American painter Cecilia Beaux was the first woman awarded the Carnegie Prize (1899); German sculptor Rebecca Horn was the second woman (1988). South African artist William Kentridge was the first filmmaker awarded it (1999). Documenta, the German contemporary art exhibition, was the only organization awarded the prize (1979). English artist Lynette Yiadom-Boakye was the first woman of color awarded the prize (2018).

The Carnegie International's prize should not be confused with the Carnegie Prize of the National Academy of Design, the Carnegie Prize of the Society of American Artists, the Carnegie Art Award (Sweden), or with the Carnegie Medal (literary award).

List of Gold Medal winners

Year	Artist	Image	Work	Collection	Notes
Annual Exhibition at the Museum of Art, Carnegie Institute[4]					$1,500 cash award accompanied the gold medal
1896 1st	John Lavery  Ireland		Lady in Brown[4]
1897 2nd	James Jebusa Shannon  United States		Miss Kitty[5][6]	Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania	The artist's daughter and two dogs
1898 3rd	Dwight William Tryon  United States		Early Spring in New England[7]	Freer Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
1899 4th	Cecilia Beaux  United States		Mother and Daughter (Mrs. Clement Acton Griscom & Frances Canby Griscom)	Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania	Gold Medal: 1900 Paris Exposition 1900 Temple Gold Medal (PAFA) First woman awarded a Carnegie Prize. (The next was not until 1988.)
1900 5th	André Dauchez  France		The Kelp Gatherers
1901 6th	Alfred H. Maurer  United States		An Arrangement	Whitney Museum of American Art, Manhattan, New York City
1902 7th	Exhibition of loaned works.[4] No prizes awarded.
1903 8th	Frank Weston Benson  United States		A Woman Reading[8]	Beverly Arts Association, Chicago, Illinois
1904 9th	Walter Elmer Schofield  United States		Across the River[9][10]	Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
1905 10th	Lucien Simon  France		Evening in a Studio	Iris & B. Gerald Cantor Center for Visual Arts, Stanford University, Stanford, California
1906	No annual exhibition (due to museum expansion)[4]
1907 11th	Gaston La Touche  France		The Bath[4]		Ex collection: William S. Stimmel[11] Ex collection: University Club of Pittsburgh Sold at Dargate Auction Galleries, Pittsburgh, 7 October 2017.[12]
1908 12th	Thomas W. Dewing  United States		The Necklace[4]	Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, D.C.
1909 13th	Edmund C. Tarbell  United States		A Girl Crocheting[13]	Arkell Museum, Canajoharie, New York
1910 14th	William Orpen  Ireland		Portrait of the Artist (Venus and Myself)[14]	Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
1911 15th	John White Alexander  United States		A Ray of Sunlight (The Cellist)	private collection
1912 16th	Charles Sims  England		Pastorella[15]		Ex collection: William S. Stimmel[11]
1913 17th	Glyn Warren Philpot  England		The Marble Worker[16]	Muskegon Museum of Art, Muskegon, Michigan
1914 18th	Edward Redfield  United States		The Village in Winter[17][18]	Payne Gallery, Moravian College, Bethlehem, Pennsylvania	Ex collection: William S. Stimmel[11]
1915–1919	No annual exhibitions (due to World War I)[4]
International Exhibition of Paintings, Carnegie Institute, Pittsburgh[19]					Name change
1920 19th	Abbot Henderson Thayer  United States		Young Woman in Olive Plush (Woman in Green Velvet)[20]	Addison Gallery of American Art, Phillips Academy, Andover, Massachusetts
1921 20th	Ernest Lawson  United States		Vanishing Mist[21][22]	Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
1922 21st	George W. Bellows  United States		Elinor, Jean and Anna[23]	Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, New York	The artist's aunt, daughter and mother 1921 Beck Gold Medal (PAFA)
1923 22nd	Arthur Bowen Davies  United States		Afterthoughts of Earth[24]
1924 23rd	Augustus John  Wales		Madame Suggia[25]	Tate Britain, London, UK
1925 24th	Henri Le Sidaner  France (born Mauritius)		Window on the Bay of Villefranche[26]	Huntington Museum of Art, Huntington, West Virginia
1926 25th	Ker-Xavier Roussel  France		The Garden (The Garden Window)[27]	Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
1927 26th	Henri Matisse  France		Still Life: Bouquet and Compotier[28]	Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond, Virginia
1928 27th	André Derain  France		Still Life[29]	Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
1929 28th	Felice Carena  Italy		La Scuola[30]	Banca Monte dei Paschi Collection, Siena, Italy
1930 29th	Pablo Picasso  Spain		Portrait of Mme Picasso[4]	private collection
1931 30th	Franklin C. Watkins  United States		Suicide in Costume[31]	Philadelphia Museum of Art	Depicts a dead man in clown costume holding a smoking gun.
1932	No annual exhibition (due to severity of the Great Depression)				Cash award reduced to $1,000
1933 31st	André Dunoyer de Segonzac  France		Saint-Tropez
1934 32nd	Peter Blume  United States (born Russia)		South of Scranton[32]	Metropolitan Museum of Art
1935 33rd	Hipólito Hidalgo de Caviedes y Gómez  Spain		Elvira and Tiberio[33]		Ex collection: Fine Arts Society of San Diego[33] Auctioned at Sotheby's NY, 18–19 November 1987[33]
1936 34th	Leon Kroll  United States		The Road from the Cove[34]	private collection
1937 35th	Georges Braque  France		The Yellow Cloth (The Yellow Tablecloth)[4]	private collection
1938 36th	Karl Hofer  Germany		The Wind[35]	Detroit Institute of Arts, Detroit, Michigan
1939 37th	Alexander Brook  United States		Georgia Jungle[36][37]	Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
1940–1949	No annual exhibitions (due to World War II). Instead, 9 exhibitions of American paintings.[4]
Pittsburgh International Exhibition of Contemporary Painting					Exhibition reorganized as a biennial Cash award increased to $2,000
1950 38th	Jacques Villon  France		The Thresher		Villon was a Cubist painter, and the brother of Marcel Duchamp.
1951	No exhibition
1952 39th	Ben Nicholson  England[4]		Azure[38]	Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
1953 & 1954	No exhibitions				Exhibition reorganized as a triennial.[4]
1955 40th	Alfred Manessier  France		Crown of Thorns[39]	Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
1956 & 1957	No exhibitions
Pittsburgh International Exhibition of Contemporary Painting and Sculpture[2]					Gold Medal for Sculpture added
1958 41st Painting	Antoni Tàpies  Spain		Painting[40]	Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
1958 41st Sculpture	Alexander Calder  United States		Mobile: Pittsburgh[41]	Pittsburgh International Airport
1959 & 1960	No exhibitions
1961 42nd Painting	Mark Tobey  United States		Untitled[42]	Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
1961 42nd Sculpture	Alberto Giacometti  Switzerland		Walking Man 1[43]	Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
1962 & 1963	No exhibitions
Pittsburgh International Exhibition of Contemporary Art					"The traditional award structure of numbered prizes has been eliminated in favor of equal awards, four for painting and two for sculpture, each in the amount of $2,000."[44]
1964 43rd Painting	Ellsworth Kelly  United States		Blue, Black and Red
	Victor Pasmore  England		Red Abstract No. 5[45]	Bristol Museum & Art Gallery, Bristol, England.
	Antonio Saura  Spain		Imaginary Portrait of Goya[46]	Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
	Pierre Soulages  France		24 November '63[47]	Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania	Meditation on the assassination of President John F. Kennedy
1964 43rd Sculpture	Jean Arp  Germany		Sculpture Classique[48]	Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
	Eduardo Chillida[49]  Spain		Modulation d'espace II[50]	Lehmbruck Museum, Duisburg, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany
1965 & 1966	No exhibitions
1967 44th Painting	Francis Bacon  Ireland				Bacon refused the prize.[3]
	Josef Albers  United States (born Germany)		Homage to the Square: Vernal[51]	Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
	Joan Miró  Spain		Queen Louise of Prussia[52]	Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
1967 44th Sculpture	Victor Vasarely  France (born Hungary)		Alom[53]	Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
1968 & 1969	No exhibitions
1970 45th	No prizes awarded
1971–1976	No exhibitions (due to construction of the Sarah Mellon Scaife Gallery).[4]
Pittsburgh International Series					Exhibition reorganized as a biennial retrospective of a single artist's body of work. $50,000 Andrew W. Mellon Prize awarded to honoree.[54]
1977 46th	Pierre Alechinsky  Belgium
1978	No exhibition
1979 47th	Willem de Kooning  United States (born Netherlands)				$50,000 Andrew W. Mellon Prize split among 3 honorees
	Eduardo Chillida[49]  Spain
	Documenta II (1959), IV (1968) and VI (1977)  Germany				International contemporary art exhibition held in Germany
1980 & 1981	No exhibitions
Carnegie International Exhibition					Exhibition re-established as a triennial $10,000 Carnegie International Prize
1982 48th	No prizes awarded
1983 & 1984	No exhibitions
1985 49th Painting	Anselm Kiefer  Germany		Midgard[55]	Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
1985 49th Sculpture	Richard Serra  United States		Carnegie[56]	Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
1986 & 1987	No exhibitions
1988 50th	Rebecca Horn  Germany		The Hydra Forest: Performing Oscar Wilde[57]	San Francisco Museum of Modern Art	Assemblage of electrical devices, glass, coal and other objects Second woman awarded a Carnegie Prize.
1989 & 1990	No exhibitions
1991 51st	On Kawara  Japan		Date Paintings[58]	Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
1992–1994	No exhibitions
1995 52nd Painting	Sigmar Polke  Germany		Hermes Trismegistos I-IV[59]	De Pont Museum of Contemporary Art, Tilburg, North Brabant, Netherlands
1995 52nd Sculpture	Richard Artschwager  United States		Table Prepared in the Presence of Enemies[60]	Carnegie Art Museum, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
1996–1998	No exhibitions
1999/2000 53rd	William Kentridge South Africa		Film: Stereoscope		First filmmaker awarded a Carnegie Prize.
2001–2003	No exhibitions
2004/2005 54th	Kutlug Ataman  Turkey		40-channel video installation: Kuba[61]		Interviews with residents of Kuba, a shanty town in Istanbul.
2006 & 2007	No exhibitions
2008 55th "Life on Mars"	Vija Celmins  United States (born Latvia)		Night Sky #12[62]	Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania	Third woman awarded a Carnegie Prize.
2009–2012	No exhibitions
2013 56th	Nicole Eisenman[63]  France		Figure paintings and sculpture		Fourth woman awarded a Carnegie Prize.
2014–2017	No exhibitions
2018 57th	Lynette Yiadom-Boakye  England		Figure paintings and portraits		Fifth woman awarded a Carnegie Prize. First woman of color awarded a Carnegie Prize.

See also

• Lists of art awards
• Prizes named after people
• Andrew Carnegie