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.
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. 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.
The exhibition has undergone a series of name changes and transformations - adding a gold medal for sculpture (beginning in 1958),[1] 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.[2] 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). 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).
| Year | Artist | Image | Work | Collection | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Annual Exhibition at the Museum of Art, Carnegie Institute | $1,500 cash award accompanied the gold medal | |||||
| 1896 1st | John Lavery | Lady in Brown[3] | ||||
| 1897 2nd | James Jebusa Shannon | Miss Kitty[4] [5] | Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania | The artist's daughter and two dogs | ||
| 1898 3rd | Dwight William Tryon | Early Spring in New England[6] | Freer Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. | |||
| 1899 4th | Cecilia Beaux | 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 | The Kelp Gatherers | ||||
| 1901 6th | Alfred H. Maurer | An Arrangement | Whitney Museum of American Art, Manhattan, New York City | |||
| 1902 7th | Exhibition of loaned works. No prizes awarded. | |||||
| 1903 8th | Frank Weston Benson | A Woman Reading[7] | Beverly Arts Association, Chicago, Illinois | |||
| 1904 9th | Walter Elmer Schofield | Across the River[8] [9] | Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania | |||
| 1905 10th | Lucien Simon | Evening in a Studio | Iris & B. Gerald Cantor Center for Visual Arts, Stanford University, Stanford, California | |||
| 1906 | No annual exhibition (due to museum expansion) | |||||
| 1907 11th | Gaston La Touche | The Bath | Ex collection: William S. Stimmel[10] Ex collection: University Club of Pittsburgh Sold at Dargate Auction Galleries, Pittsburgh, 7 October 2017.[11] | |||
| 1908 12th | Thomas W. Dewing | The Necklace | Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, D.C. | |||
| 1909 13th | Edmund C. Tarbell | A Girl Crocheting[12] | Arkell Museum, Canajoharie, New York | |||
| 1910 14th | William Orpen | Portrait of the Artist (Venus and Myself)[13] | Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania | |||
| 1911 15th | John White Alexander | A Ray of Sunlight (The Cellist) | private collection | |||
| 1912 16th | Charles Sims | Pastorella[14] | Ex collection: William S. Stimmel | |||
| 1913 17th | Glyn Warren Philpot | The Marble Worker[15] | Muskegon Museum of Art, Muskegon, Michigan | |||
| 1914 18th | Edward Redfield | The Village in Winter[16] [17] | Payne Gallery, Moravian College, Bethlehem, Pennsylvania | Ex collection: William S. Stimmel | ||
| 1915 - 1919 | No annual exhibitions (due to World War I) | |||||
| International Exhibition of Paintings, Carnegie Institute, Pittsburgh[18] | Name change | |||||
| 1920 19th | Abbot Henderson Thayer | Young Woman in Olive Plush (Woman in Green Velvet)[19] | Addison Gallery of American Art, Phillips Academy, Andover, Massachusetts | |||
| 1921 20th | Ernest Lawson | Vanishing Mist[20] [21] | Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania | |||
| 1922 21st | George W. Bellows | Elinor, Jean and Anna[22] | Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, New York | The artist's aunt, daughter and mother 1921 Beck Gold Medal (PAFA) | ||
| 1923 22nd | Arthur Bowen Davies | Afterthoughts of Earth[23] | ||||
| 1924 23rd | Augustus John | Madame Suggia[24] | Tate Britain, London, UK | |||
| 1925 24th | Henri Le Sidaner (born Mauritius) | Window on the Bay of Villefranche[25] | Huntington Museum of Art, Huntington, West Virginia | |||
| 1926 25th | Ker-Xavier Roussel | The Garden (The Garden Window)[26] | Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania | |||
| 1927 26th | Henri Matisse | Still Life: Bouquet and Compotier[27] | Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond, Virginia | |||
| 1928 27th | André Derain | Still Life[28] | Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania | |||
| 1929 28th | Felice Carena | La Scuola[29] | Banca Monte dei Paschi Collection, Siena, Italy | |||
| 1930 29th | Pablo Picasso | Portrait of Mme Picasso | private collection | |||
| 1931 30th | Franklin C. Watkins | Suicide in Costume[30] | 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 | Saint-Tropez | ||||
| 1934 32nd | Peter Blume (born Russia) | South of Scranton[31] | Metropolitan Museum of Art | |||
| 1935 33rd | Hipólito Hidalgo de Caviedes y Gómez | Elvira and Tiberio[32] | Ex collection: Fine Arts Society of San Diego Auctioned at Sotheby's NY, 18–19 November 1987 | |||
| 1936 34th | Leon Kroll | The Road from the Cove[33] | private collection | |||
| 1937 35th | Georges Braque | The Yellow Cloth (The Yellow Tablecloth) | private collection | |||
| 1938 36th | Karl Hofer | The Wind[34] | Detroit Institute of Arts, Detroit, Michigan | |||
| 1939 37th | Alexander Brook | Georgia Jungle[35] [36] | Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania | |||
| 1940 - 1949 | No annual exhibitions (due to World War II). Instead, 9 exhibitions of American paintings. | |||||
| Pittsburgh International Exhibition of Contemporary Painting | Exhibition reorganized as a biennial Cash award increased to $2,000 | |||||
| 1950 38th | Jacques Villon | The Thresher | Villon was a Cubist painter, and the brother of Marcel Duchamp. | |||
| 1951 | No exhibition | |||||
| 1952 39th | Ben Nicholson | Azure[37] | Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania | |||
| 1953 & 1954 | No exhibitions | Exhibition reorganized as a triennial. | ||||
| 1955 40th | Alfred Manessier | Crown of Thorns[38] | Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania | |||
| 1956 & 1957 | No exhibitions | |||||
| Pittsburgh International Exhibition of Contemporary Painting and Sculpture | Gold Medal for Sculpture added | |||||
| 1958 41st Painting | Antoni Tàpies | Painting[39] | Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania | |||
| 1958 41st Sculpture | Alexander Calder | Mobile: Pittsburgh[40] | Pittsburgh International Airport | |||
| 1959 & 1960 | No exhibitions | |||||
| 1961 42nd Painting | Mark Tobey | Untitled[41] | Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania | |||
| 1961 42nd Sculpture | Alberto Giacometti | Walking Man 1[42] | 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."[43] | |||||
| 1964 43rd Painting | Ellsworth Kelly | Blue, Black and Red | ||||
| Victor Pasmore | Red Abstract No. 5[44] | Bristol Museum & Art Gallery, Bristol, England. | ||||
| Antonio Saura | Imaginary Portrait of Goya[45] | Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania | ||||
| Pierre Soulages | 24 November '63[46] | Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania | Meditation on the assassination of President John F. Kennedy | |||
| 1964 43rd Sculpture | Jean Arp | Sculpture Classique[47] | Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania | |||
| Eduardo Chillida | Modulation d'espace II[48] | Lehmbruck Museum, Duisburg, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany | ||||
| 1965 & 1966 | No exhibitions | |||||
| 1967 44th Painting | Francis Bacon | Bacon refused the prize.[49] | ||||
| Josef Albers (born Germany) | Homage to the Square: Vernal[50] | Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania | ||||
| Joan Miró | Queen Louise of Prussia[51] | Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania | ||||
| 1967 44th Sculpture | Victor Vasarely (born Hungary) | Alom[52] | 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). | |||||
| 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.[53] | |||||
| 1977 46th | Pierre Alechinsky | |||||
| 1978 | No exhibition | |||||
| 1979 47th | Willem de Kooning (born Netherlands) | $50,000 Andrew W. Mellon Prize split among 3 honorees | ||||
| Eduardo Chillida[54] | ||||||
| Documenta II (1959), IV (1968) and VI (1977) | 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 | Midgard[55] | Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania | |||
| 1985 49th Sculpture | Richard Serra | Carnegie[56] | Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania | |||
| 1986 & 1987 | No exhibitions | |||||
| 1988 50th | Rebecca Horn | 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 | Date Paintings[58] | Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania | |||
| 1992 - 1994 | No exhibitions | |||||
| 1995 52nd Painting | Sigmar Polke | Hermes Trismegistos I-IV[59] | De Pont Museum of Contemporary Art, Tilburg, North Brabant, Netherlands | |||
| 1995 52nd Sculpture | Richard Artschwager | Table Prepared in the Presence of Enemies[60] | Carnegie Art Museum, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania | |||
| 1996 - 1998 | No exhibitions | |||||
| 1999/2000 53rd | Film: Stereoscope | First filmmaker awarded a Carnegie Prize. | ||||
| 2001 - 2003 | No exhibitions | |||||
| 2004/2005 54th | Kutlug Ataman | 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 (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] | Figure paintings and sculpture | Fourth woman awarded a Carnegie Prize. | |||
| 2014 - 2017 | No exhibitions | |||||
| 2018 57th | Lynette Yiadom-Boakye | Figure paintings and portraits | Fifth woman awarded a Carnegie Prize. First woman of color awarded a Carnegie Prize. | |||