With the Rise of Art Prizes, Everyone's a Winner

Published Jan. 9, 2010 at 6:15 p.m.
A decade ago, just a handful of awards conferred prestige on artists: the Turner Prize (for British art), the MacArthur (for creative genius in the U.S.), and the Archibald (for portraiture in Australia). But in recent years the number of contemporary-art prizes available has multiplied faster than new film festivals; in the last quarter of 2009 alone, at least a dozen new awards were launched in the U.S. and U.K. They are bankrolled by unfamiliar names like Abraaj, Sovereign, Pictet, and Pinchuk, as well as big, established brands like Hugo Boss, which offers a $100,000 prize in collaboration with the Guggenheim Museum. And their mandates are diverse: the two-year-old, $95,000 Prix Pictet celebrates photography with an ecological message, while the $18,000 Cricket Art Prize, started last year by an Australian tycoon, honors works about his favorite sport.

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