Winner of the 2017 Drawing Prize:
Ciprian Muresan
Award ceremony: March 23, 2017
Daniel & Florence Guerlain Contemporary Art Foundation
88 Boulevard Malesherbes
75008 Paris
France
The Drawing Prize’s jury has awarded the 2017 edition to Ciprian Muresan born in 1977 in Dej in Romania. Represented by the Galleries Plan B (Cluj and Berlin), David Nolan (New York), Eric Hussenot (Paris), he lives and works in Cluj-Napoca.
The award ceremony took place in Paris at the Salon du Dessin on March 23. The winner received a prize of 15 000 euros whilst the two other nominated artists—Charles Avery and Didier Trénet—each received an endowment of 5 000 euros. A work by the winner will be offered to a French institute by the Foundation.
June 14–September 11, 2017
The Prize’s 10th anniversary will be marked by an exceptional exhibition in the Centre Pompidou of the 30 artists honoured by the drawing prize since its creation.
In his often dark and ironic works, Ciprian Muresan evokes the realities of present day Romania, the ambivalent relation to recent history, the end of communism, the fascination of Western countries and the loss of local traditions. But his work is in keeping with a more global reflection on the contemporary world marked by the end of Utopias, the uniformization of thought and dominated by a globalized and consensual culture. “Central to Ciprian Muresan’s work are the themes of transmission and reception which raises questions about “how to deal with legacies and artefacts from the past”. The starting point of his research is often works by artists whom he admires or exhibition catalogues. Muresan has also paid tribute to Yves Klein’s Leap into the void and made other more or less direct references to Piet Mondrian, Kasimir Malevitch or Joseph Beuys, but also to Masaccio or Hans Holbein. Though he experiments with multiple media, he admits that “he has drawing in his blood”, writes Marie Maertens.
His work has been shown at the Viennese Secession and the NBK, in the Centre Georges Pompidou, in the Witte de With, in the New Museum and in the Romanian Pavilion of the 53rd Venice Biennial. He is present in numerous collections: the Taylor Collection, Cabinet d’Art Graphique of the MNAM-Centre Pompidou and the Florence & Daniel Guerlain collection.
About the Daniel & Florence Guerlain Contemporary Art Foundation’s Drawing Prize
Created in 1996, the Daniel & Florence Guerlain Contemporary Art Foundation organized exhibitions in the family property for ten years, before Daniel and Florence Guerlain decided in 2006 to devote the Foundation’s activities to the Contemporary Drawing Prize.
First biennial then annual, the prize wishes to encourage and allow for the growth of contemporary drawing. Each year, it honours a winner from among the three artists selected by a committee of six experts: the two founders, Daniel and Florence Guerlain and four members chosen for their competence and interest in contemporary art.
The Prize concerns artists for whom drawing on paper is a significant part of their work. The nominated artists can be of French or foreign nationality on condition that they reside in France or have a privileged cultural link through institutional exhibitions. All graphic means are accepted—crayon, charcoal, red chalk, ink, wash tint, gouache, watercolour, pastels and felt… including collages and wall drawings but excluding computer and mechanical processes.
The winner is chosen by a jury exclusively comprised of French and foreign collectors that is renewed each year.
2017 jury: Christian de Dancourt (France), Raffaella Frascarelli (Italy) , Pascale Gérardin (France), Loa Haagen Pictet (Switzerland), Ken Kuchin (United States), Léopold Meyer (France), Beatriz Yunes (Brazil), Florence and Daniel Guerlain (France)
Past winners: Silvia Bächli, Switzerland (2007), Sandra Vásquez de la Horra, Chile (2009), Catharina Van Eetvelde, Belgium (2010), Marcel Van Eeden, Netherlands (2011), Jorinde Voigt, Germany (2012), Susan Hefuna, Germany (2013), Tomasz Kowalski, Poland (2014), Jockum Nordström, Sweden (2015), Cameron Jamie, United States (2016).
The Drawing Prize benefits from the generous support of: Banque Neuflize OBC, Cercle des Amis, Guerlain, Artcurial, Axa Art, Loticis, le chêne vert, Voisin Consulting Life Sciences, Finance Consultants, le Salon du dessin, les Beaux-Arts de Paris, Château Seguin, Champagne Bruno Paillard
Press contact: Agence ACC, T +33 (0) 6 10 19 36 31, crabbecaroline [at] orange.fr
