VIJA CELMINS WINS 2009 ROSWITHA HAFTMANN PRIZE

Artist Vija Celmins has been awarded the 2009 Roswitha Haftmann Prize, reports Swissinfo. The $139,000 prize went to Celmins for outstanding artistic achievement in different media. “The artist has a masterly and uncanny way of exploiting widely differing artistic media to the utmost advantage for her creative purposes,” said the foundation’s press release. Celmins used oils and charcoal in earlier works portraying a world destabilized by war and a photogravure technique in later pieces focusing on nature. The Latvian-born artist has lived and worked in New York since 1981. The foundation awards prizes every one to three years on the basis of the outstanding artistic significance of an individual’s work. The winner is selected by a board that includes the directors of the Kunstmuseum Bern, the Kunstmuseum Basel, the Museum Ludwig in Cologne, and the Kunsthaus Zurich.