Art in America - March 2016_

168 MARCH 2016

ARTWORLD

Art Association, was bestowed upon

Northwestern University professor

Krista hompsonfor her volumeShine:

he Visual Economy of Light in African

Diasporic Aesthetic Practice.

Lia Gangitano, founder of the

Lower East Side nonproit Participant

Inc., has won theWhite Columns/

Shoot the Lobster Award.he $5,000

prize, jointly presented by the galleries

to individuals who “create a context for

artists’ ideas and seek to build com-

munities around them,” also includes a

commissioned artwork by Michel Auder

and Soi Brazzeal.

OBITUARIES

Painter and writerRobert Berlinddied

on Dec. 17, at age 77. Over his 50-year

career, Berlind produced a body of

mostly semiabstract landscapes. From

1977 to 2012, he contributed almost

100 reviews on a far-ranging group of

artists to this magazine. Berlind won

many awards, including the American

Academy and Institute of Arts and

Letters Award in Painting and the

Benjamin Altman Award in Painting

from the National Academy. In 2013, he

received an Arts Writers Grant from the

Andy Warhol Foundation in association

with Creative Capital. At the time of

his death, Berlind was professor emeri-

tus at the School of Art and Design,

Purchase College, State University of

New York.

George Ortman, whose geomet-

ric paintings from the 1950s and ’60s

presaged Minimalism, died on Dec. 16

in Manhattan. He was 89. Ortman was

included in the seminal Jewish Museum

exhibition “Toward a New Abstraction”

(1963), and the Walker Art Center in

Minneapolis mounted a retrospective

of his work in 1965.hat same year, he

was awarded a Guggenheim Fellow-

ship. he artist served as the head of

the graduate department of painting

at the Cranbrook Academy of Art in

Bloomield Hills, Mich., from 1970 to

1991. In 2003 he received a Lee Krasner
      Lifetime Achievement Award.

PEOPLE

Nancy Spector, the longtime deputy direc-

tor and chief curator of the Guggenheim

Museum, New York, succeedsKevin Stay-

tonas deputy director and chief curator of

theBrooklyn Museum. Stayton, who held

the position for 35 years, now serves as the

institution’s deputy director and director of

collections and history.

heArt Gallery of Ontariohas

appointedStephan Jost, director of the

Honolulu Museum of Art, as director and

CEO of the Toronto-based institution.

Frances Morris, director of the Tate

collection of international art, has been

named director ofTate Modern, London.

Outgoing directorChris Derconhas

been hired to the same position at the

Volksbühne theater in Berlin.

Jess Wilcox, program coordinator

at the Brooklyn Museum’s Elizabeth

A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art, is

now director of exhibitions atSocrates

Sculpture Parkin Queens.

hePortland Art Museumappointed

Jochen Wierichas curator of American

art. Wierich comes to the museum from

the Cheekwood Botanical Garden and

Museum of Art in Nashville, where he was

chief curator.

hePublic Art Fundhas hired

Emma Enderby, formerly exhibitions

curator at London’s Serpentine Galler-

ies, as associate curator.Andria Hickey,

who previously held the post at the New

York-based nonproit, has been promoted

to curator.

AWA R DS

hePritzker Prize, architecture’s most

prestigious award, was granted to Chil-

ean architectAlejandro Aravena. As

executive director of the Santiago-based

irm Elemental, Aravena has designed

low-cost housing units as well as other

social welfare projects.

English sculptorPhyllida Barlow

has been dubbed aCommander of the

Order of the British Empire(CBE)

for her services to the arts in Queen

Elizabeth’s New Year’s honors.

Creative Capital’s 2016 award

winners include 63 artists working on

46 projects in three categories: literature,

performing arts and emerging ields.

Grantees like artistLiz Glynn, writer

Eileen MylesandKCHUNGradio

receive up to $50,000 each.

heFoundation for Contemporary

Arts, a New York nonproit launched by

John Cage and Robert Rauschenberg

in 1963, presented sound artistJoan

La Barbarawith the annual $50,000

John Cage AwardandJennie C. Jones

with the $40,000Robert Rauschen-

berg Award. An additional 14 grants

of $40,000 each were conferred in the

following categories: visual arts, music/

sound, poetry, dance and performance

art/theater.

PainterLaura Owensis the win-

ner of the 2015Robert De Niro Sr.

Prize. Owens will receive the $25,000

prize, administered by theTribeca

Film Institute, for her innovative work

in the medium.

heMuseum of Photographic Arts

in San Diego announced Swiss artist

Fazal Sheikhas the recipient of the sixth

annualLou Stoumen Prize in Photog-

raphy. he $20,000 award recognizes

a midcareer photographer whose work

exempliies humanistic ideals.he

museum will also acquire 10 works by

Sheikh for its permanent collection.

heCharles Rufus Morey Book

Award, presented by theCollege

Alejandro Aravena.

Photo Cristobal

Palma.

—Artworld is compiled by

Julia Wolkof

Frances Morris.
Courtesy Tate,
London.