Artists and activists Faith Ringgold, photographer and philanthropist Susan Unterberg and literary critic Helen Hennesy Vendler received the the highest honors from the American Academy of Arts and Letters for their contributions to the arts. The announcement comes a week after eight artists – Emily Jacir, Tala Madani, Mary Miss, Lorraine O’Grady, Sandy Rodriguez, Cameron Rowland, Cauleen Smith and Ouattara Watts — received this year art prize. Recipients will be honored at a ceremony on May 24.
In a statement shared with Hyperallergic, the Academy notes that the three honored women are artists and advocates in the field. “These three recipients have dedicated a portion of their careers to advancing the work of other artists, whether through reviews and essays that have taught an audience to read and understand poetry, art and activism that have helped make room for black, or innovative, female artists. prizes that have honored hundreds of women artists,” said Academy President Kwame Anthony Appiah.
Two years ago, Unterberg, a photographer who has worked at institutions such as the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, turned out to be the artist behind Anonymous was a womana non-profit organization that has been distributing grants to female artists over the age of 40 since 1996. She won the award for Distinguished Service to the Arts.
Meanwhile, the Academy recognized Faith Ringgold with the Gold Medal for Painting for her work, which explores moments from the Civil Rights era through painting, sculpture, and quilting, among other mediums. But the artist’s influence extends beyond the canvas: she has spent decades advocating for women of color in the arts. In 1970, Ringgold, critic Michele Wallace and other members of the Ad Hoc Committee of Women Artists members protested outside the Whitney Museum of American Art every Sunday for four months before the biennial of that year to demand 50% representation of female artists. The Academy inducted Ringgold as a Fellow in 2021.
Painter and first-generation Chicana, Sandy Rodriguez received the Jacob Lawrence Award. Her work uses field and cultural research to create map-like paintings that depict the political histories of the Southwestern region of the United States and Mexico. Museum of Art, Design and Architecture (AD&A) at the University of California, Santa Barbra exposure of his work, on view through March 2024, chronicles central California uprisings involving communities of color from 1824 to the present day. She will receive a prize of $10,000.
One of five recipients of the Arts and Letters Awards in Art, which awards each winner $10,000, Lorraine O’Grady’s conceptual, critical and performance art addresses hybridity and black female subjectivity. The 88-year-old artist has recently received renewed attention with a 2021 retrospective at Brooklyn Museum and at a Museum of Modern Art exhibit for the Black-Owned Experimental Gallery Just above Midtown closed February 18.
Another artist to receive this award is Emily Jacir, whose films, photographs, installations and performances often deal with themes of displacement and exile linked to Israeli occupation of the Palestinians. For where we come from (2001-03), Jacir collected 30 pairs of photographs, texts and videos and asked participants both banned from returning to Palestine or moving freely in the occupied state: “If I could do something for you, anywhere in Palestine, what would that be?”
“The Art Awards and Gold Medal Awards are an opportunity for members of the American Academy of Arts and Letters to honor and support the work of other artists,” said Jenny Jaskey, Chief Curator and Director of the Art Awards. Hyperallergic in a report. “Through our awards, members encourage their peers across generations.”
