Kandinsky Prize

The Kandinsky Prize, named after Russian painter Wassily Kandinsky is a newly created award, sponsored by the Deutsche Bank AG and the Art Chronika Culture Foundation. It was organized in hopes of developing Russian contemporary art, and to reinforce Russian art’s status within the world. In total, 55,000 euros are awarded to the artists.

It was first given out on December 4, 2007, hosted at the Winzavod Contemporary Art Center in Moscow. Four awards were given. The Young Artist Category is awarded to an artist under 30 and they receive a three months stay in Villa Romana. New Media Project of the year is awarded 10,000 euros. Artist of the Year is awarded 40,000 euros. Audience's Prize is awarded 5,000 euros.

The award has been evolving over the years. "One of the distinctive features of the prize is that artists are able to nominate themselves." Now the categories are 'Project of the Year', 'Young Artist. Project of the Year' and 'Scholarly Work. History and Theory of Contemporary Art'. Every year the venue changes, the finalists' projects being shown in different cities.

On September 20, 2007, Deutsche Bank and ArtChronika presented their nominations of over 250 names for the Kandinsky Prize in a press conference. Their work was displayed in exhibitions at Moscow’s Central House of Artist and in St. Petersburg. It was eventually cut down to 50. The winners were announced in December. The objective is to promote contemporary Russian art and to offer insights into the art scene's most important trends and perspective.

"This is a natural progression. In the last two years, we have had the Biennale, art fairs and many exhibitions. With all these events, there comes growth in numbers of art critics, art investors, art foundations and institutes, and so we decided there should also be an art prize," Nikolai Molok, the editor of ArtKhronika.

...
Wikipedia