Elisabeth Sussman, Curator and Sondra Gilman Curator of Photography at the Whitney Museum of American Art, to receive 2013 Audrey Irmas Award for Curatorial Excellence from The Center for Curatorial Studies at Bard College
Award presented at gala celebration:
April 3, 2013 at Capitale in New York City
The Center for Curatorial Studies at Bard College (CCS Bard) has announced that the Audrey Irmas Award for Curatorial Excellence will be presented to Elisabeth Sussman, Curator of Photography at the Whitney Museum of American Art, at a gala celebration and dinner on April 3, 2013 at Capitale in New York City. For more information, or to purchase tickets, please contact Ramona Rosenberg at 845.758.7574 or rrosenberg [at] bard.edu.
As the recipient of the sixteenth CCS Bard Award for Curatorial Excellence, Sussman is recognized for her dynamic curatorial vision and her dedication to the field. The award will be presented to Sussman by Robert Gober. The 2013 award has been designed by artist Lawrence Weiner, and is based on his 2006 commission Bard Enter, conceived for the entrance to the Hessel Museum of Art at CCS Bard. The award also comes with the Audrey Irmas Prize of 25,000 USD.
Elisabeth Sussman is Curator and Sondra Gilman Curator of Photography at the Whitney Museum of American Art. Most recently, along with co-curator Jay Sanders, she curated the 2012 Whitney Biennial. Prior to that, her exhibition Paul Thek: Diver, A Retrospective (co-curated by Lynn Zelevansky) completed its three-venue tour. Diver was awarded the AICA award for best monographic show in New York (2011). Previously, her exhibition William Eggleston: Democratic Camera, Photographs and Video, 1961–2008 (co-curated by Thomas Weski) was on a four-venue international tour. In 2007, Sussman’s Gordon Matta-Clark: “You Are the Measure” was awarded the AICA award for best monographic show in New York. She has organized a number of other Whitney exhibitions, including Remote Viewing: Invented Worlds in Recent Painting and Drawing (2005); Mike Kelley: Catholic Tastes (1993); Nan Goldin: I’ll Be Your Mirror (1996), with David Armstrong; Keith Haring (1997); and the Museum’s 1993 Biennial Exhibition. She has also co-curated two exhibitions on the work of Eva Hesse: one of Hesse’s drawings with The Drawing Center and another of her sculpture with The Jewish Museum, both in New York. For the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Sussman co-organized, with Renate Petzinger of the Museum Wiesbaden, a full retrospective on the work of Eva Hesse; the exhibition received AICA’s First Prize for the best monographic exhibition outside of New York in 2001 and 2002. For SFMOMA, Elisabeth Sussman also organized, with Sandra Phillips, a retrospective of the work of Diane Arbus, Diane Arbus: Revelation. The catalogue for the Arbus exhibition received the 2004 Infinity Award for Publication of the International Center of Photography. Elisabeth Sussman was a Fellow of the Rockefeller Foundation at the Rockefeller Study and Conference Center in Bellagio, Italy, in 1999. She was a fellow at the Getty Research Institute in 2003. She is the author of many publications, including Lisette Model (Phaidon, 2001) and has contributed essays on Robert Gober for the Schaulager and Lee Bontecou for an exhibition catalogue. Before coming to the Whitney, Sussman served as Interim Director (1991) and Deputy Director for Programs (1989–91) at the Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston. Also at the ICA, she was Chief Curator from 1982 to 1989, and Curator from 1976 to 1982. She has taught at M.I.T. and Tufts.
About CCS Bard’s Audrey Irmas Award for Curatorial Excellence
For sixteen years, the Center for Curatorial Studies at Bard College has celebrated and awarded the individual achievements of a leading curator or curators whose lasting contributions have shaped the way we conceive of exhibition-making today. For the second time, the 2013 award will be given under the name of patron Audrey Irmas, who has bestowed the endowment for the Award. Irmas is a board member of CCS Bard and an active member of the Los Angeles arts and philanthropic community.
The awardee is selected by an independent panel of leading contemporary art curators, museum directors, and artists. Past recipients include Harald Szeemann (1998), Marcia Tucker (1999), Kasper König (2000), Paul Schimmel (2001), Susanne Ghez (2002), Kynaston McShine (2003), Walter Hopps (2004), Kathy Halbreich and Mari Carmen Ramírez (2005), Lynne Cooke and Vasif Kortun (2006), Alanna Heiss (2007), Catherine David (2008), Okwui Enwezor (2009), Lucy Lippard (2010), Helen Molesworth (2011), Hans Ulrich Obrist (2011), and Ann Goldstein (2012). The award reflects CCS Bard’s commitment to recognizing individuals who have defined new thinking, bold vision, and dedicated service to the field of exhibition practice.
About the Center for Curatorial Studies
The Center for Curatorial Studies at Bard College (CCS Bard) is an exhibition, education, and research center dedicated to the study of art and curatorial practices from the 1960s to the present day.
In addition to the CCS Bard Galleries and Hessel Museum of Art, the Center houses the Marieluise Hessel Collection, as well as an extensive library and curatorial archives that are accessible to the public. The Center’s two-year M.A. program in curatorial studies is specifically designed to deepen students’ understanding of the intellectual and practical tasks of curating contemporary art. Exhibitions are presented year-round in the CCS Bard Galleries and Hessel Museum of Art, providing students with the opportunity to work with world-renowned artists and curators. The exhibition program and the Hessel Collection also serve as the basis for a wide range of public programs and activities exploring art and its role in contemporary society.
General information on the Center for Curatorial Studies at Bard College can be found on its website at www.bard.edu/ccs.
For more information, or to purchase tickets, please contact Ramona Rosenberg at 845.758.7574 or rrosenberg [at] bard.edu.
Center for Curatorial Studies and
Hessel Museum of Art
Bard College, PO Box 5000
Annandale-on-Hudson, NY 12504-5000
T 845 758 7598
ccs [at] bard.edu
