Guggenheim end the Hugo Boss Prize after 25 years
The art world is saying goodbye to one of its most coveted prizes. The Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation and fashion brand Hugo Boss have ended the biannual Hugo Boss Prize, which has been awarded to a contemporary artist every other year since 1996.
Famously, the prize came in the form of a solo exhibition at the Guggenheim Museum in New York and $100,000 in cash, but now, the two organisations have decided to pull the plug on the award, as reported by Artnews.
“The world was nowhere near as enamoured of art, as it is now, before the advent of the Hugo Boss Prize,” chief curator and deputy director of the Guggenheim Naomi Beckwith said. “It allowed the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum to bring contemporary art to a broader audience and, as such, make art a bigger part of a global cultural and social conversation that you see in fashion, music, cinema and social media now. We’re in an entirely different landscape now.”
This means that the final recipient of the prize was photographer Deana Lawson back in 2020. Previous winners include Simone Leigh in 2018, Anicka Yi in 2016 and Danh Võ in 2012. The prize’s first recipient was Matthew Barney, one of the most respected contemporary artists, who the somewhat polarising musician Kanye West cited as an influence on his track ‘Famous’.
The Hugo Boss Prize was particularly coveted in the art world as it was without the many restrictions that others have, with age and the artist’s nationality and medium of choice not an issue. Added to this, the prize money made it one of the most lucrative out there.
The Guggenheim has made clear that they have no current plans to create another contemporary art prize. The organisation’s chief advancement officer Leah Heister Burton said: “The Hugo Boss Prize was unique and we would never look to replicate it”.
