The Japan Art Association on July 9 announced five recipients of the Ninth Praemium Imperiale awards.
The 1997 recipients are: Gerhard Richter of Germany in painting, George Segal of the United States in sculpture, Richard Meier of the United States in architecture, Ravi Shankar of India in music and Peter Brook of Britain in theater/film. The awards, which were established in 1988 at the behest of the late Prince Takamatsu, recognize outstanding artists who have contributed to the development of culture and art.
The recipients of the Ninth Praemium Imperiale were announced July 9 at the Colonna Museum in Rome. Richter, 65, is one of the most influential and widely discussed painters in contemporary art. He has produced a variety of works, including pure abstractions, grisaille and full-color realist paintings. Segal, 72, came to public attention during the 1960s with his life-size plaster figures set among real chairs and a table. In the late '70s and early '80s, Segal did a number of public commissions that addressed political and social themes, such as "Gay Liberation," "The Holocaust," and "In Memory of May 4, 1970"