Top honors for Rob Pruitt’s 2010 Art Awards went to the late artist Louise Bourgeois and Whitney Museum of American Art curator Chrissie Iles during a ceremony held at Webster Hall on December 8, 2010. Conceived by Pruitt as a performance-based artwork that follows the format of a Hollywood awards show, the annual event celebrates individuals, exhibitions, and projects that made a significant contribution to contemporary art during the past year. After opening with a restaging of Marina Abramović's Imponderabilia, mastermind Rob Pruitt and Master of Ceremonies Glenn O’Brien ascended the stage to greet the art-world luminaries in attendance before turning it over to cast of presenters including John Currin and Rachel Feinstein; Marina Abramović and Klaus Biesenbach; and Bill Powers, Jeanne Greenberg Rohatyn, and Jerry Saltz, of the Bravo television series Work of Art, who awarded winners in categories ranging from Blogger or Critic of the Year to New Artist of the Year.
Guests dined on a menu crafted by Roberta’s, of Bushwick, Brooklyn, and enjoyed performances by artists Martin Creed and Kalup Linzy, who was joined by James Franco for a ribald duet. But the night was more than mere revelry. As a shared fundraising event benefiting the Guggenheim Foundation and visual arts nonprofit White Columns, the Art Awards celebrated the liftetime achievement of Martha Rosler and Jonas Mekas, while an Artist-Educator Achievement Award, new to this year’s ceremony, went to Marilyn Minter. As Mekas accepted his award—a black-and-white silk-screened painting of an engraved trophy designed by Pruitt—he declared to his fellow artists, “We all have the same purpose—to make humanity more subtle and beautiful.”
View photos from the night on Flickr.
The complete list of nominees and winners is:
Alternative Space of the Year
WINNER Artists Space, New York
179 Canal, New York
Cleopatra's, Brooklyn, New York
Light Industry, Brooklyn, New York
Alternative Project of the Year
WINNER INDEPENDENT, New York
Apartment Show, various locations, New York
edia Int'l Group, Foundation Barbin, New York
Jennifer Rubell, Creation, Performa 09, New York
Artist of the Year
WINNER Louise Bourgeois
Marina Abramović
John Baldessari
Trisha Donnelly
Blogger or Critic of the Year
WINNER Jerry Saltz
Howard Halle
Paddy Johnson
Linda Yablonsky
Curator of the Year
WINNER Chrissie Iles
Massimiliano Gioni
Laura Hoptman
Neville Wakefield
Exhibition outside the United States
WINNER 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
WINNER Primary Atmospheres: Works from California 1960–1970, David Zwirner, New York
Lush Life, various locations, New York
Picture Industry (Goodbye to All That), Regen Projects, Los Angeles
Your History Is Not Our History: New York in the 1980s, Haunch of Venison, New York
Group Show of the Year, Museum
WINNER In & Out of Amsterdam: Travels in Conceptual Art, 1960–1976, Museum of Modern Art, New York
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, MoMA P.S. 1, Long Island City, New York
2010 Whitney Biennial Exhibition, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York
New Artist of the Year
WINNER Tauba Auerbach
Michele Abeles
Liz Magic Laser
Ryan McNamara
The Rob Pruitt Award
WINNER Lena Dunham
Solo Show of the Year, Gallery
WINNER Trisha Donnelly, Casey Kaplan Gallery, New York
Claude Monet: Late Work, Gagosian Gallery, New York
Gelitin: Blind Sculpture, Greene Naftali Gallery
Jonathan Horowitz: Go Vegan! Gavin Brown’s Enterprise, New York
Solo Show of the Year, Museum
WINNER Marina Abramović: 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
Master of Ceremonies Glenn O'Brien and Rob Pruitt. Photo: Roger Kisby
