Praemium Imperiale 2021: Yo-Yo Ma and Sebastião Salgado among the winners of the “Nobel” prize for the arts
This photo obtained on March 14, 2021 by Berkshire Community College shows Yo-Yo Ma playing the cello on March 13, 2021 during his 15-minute observation period after being vaccinated.
© Jonah SYKES / Berkshire Community College / AFP
Text by: Siegfried Forster Follow
5 mins
The Praemium Imperiale Prize is considered the “Nobel” for the arts.
Among the five winners announced this Tuesday, September 14 for the 2021 edition, are among others the American cellist Yo-Yo Ma and the Brazilian photographer Sebastião Salgado.
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Awarded since 1988 by the imperial family of Japan on behalf of the oldest Japanese cultural foundation, the Japan Art Association, the Praemium Imperiale prize is considered, thanks to its endowment of 15 million yen (125,000 euros) for each laureate, also like the “Nobel” for the arts.
It is awarded for an entire artistic career in five fields: painting, sculpture, architecture, music and theater-cinema.
Sebastião Salgado, the master of natural light
He is indeed a photographer, but for the “Nobel” for the arts, the Brazilian Sebastião Salgado (Brazil / France) finds himself awarded in the painting category. Born on February 8, 1944 in Minas Gerais, Brazil, the artist began his career as a professional photographer in Paris in 1973. Then, he has not stopped traveling the world. In 1986 and 1988, he devoted two projects to the Sahel and famine in Africa. His
Workers
series is a
testament to the trying lives of manual workers around the world. In 2000, he shared the daily life of migrants and refugees. Shaken by terrible violence during the Rwandan genocide and the war in Yugoslavia, Salgado stopped photography for a while, before resuming in Brazil with a new mission: saving the planet.
Famous for his ability to make palpable through natural light the beauty of nature and the fragility of men and women, his project
Genesis
(2013) is today considered the masterpiece of the artist who has also this year received the Doctor of Letters
honoris causa
distinction
from Harvard University in the United States.
His latest work,
Amazonia
, alerts us to the ravages of illegal logging and extraction.
James Turrell, the magician of light
American artist James Turrell won the award in the field of sculpture.
Born May 6, 1943 in Los Angeles, he became famous for his way of using light and space to express himself.
After training in perceptual psychology and the fine arts, he had his first solo exhibition in 1967, at the Pasadena Art Museum, where he impressed with his geometric shapes in projected light.
Through the
Ganzfelds
series
, he experienced the complete disappearance of the depth field.
And with the construction of 102
Skyspaces
around the world, he inspired viewers to experience the light of the sky through an opening in the ceiling.
His most ambitious work is still in progress.
Started in 1979, it should be completed in 2026. It is a total immersion in the activities of the cosmos.
In the tunnels of an extinct volcano located in northern Arizona, the visitor can experience rooms and tunnels "
a music of the spheres by isolating and intensifying the light of the sun, the moon, the stars and the stars. planets
”.
Glenn Murcutt, the architect anchored in the Australian soil
Australian Glenn Murcutt won the award in the discipline of architecture.
Born July 25, 1936 in London, he spent his youth in Papua New Guinea before returning at the age of 13 to Australia with his family.
His father, head of a carpentry workshop, taught him construction techniques using wood.
In 1969, he opened his own architectural firm in Sydney and described his independence as fundamental for an uncompromising creation, from Maison Marie Short in 1974 to the Australian Islamic Center, completed in 2016.
Today, he is considered an architect respectful of the environment and above all ahead of his time, while respecting the Australian tradition and climate.
Awarded the Pritzker Prize in 2002, his constructions are characterized by great lightness and poetic beauty in harmony with nature while being part of great ecological wisdom.
Yo-Yo Ma, the cellist who is first and foremost a human being
During the Covid-19 pandemic, he played Dvorak at a U.S. vaccination center in Massachusetts. Today cellist Yo-Yo Ma received the Praemium imperiale. Known throughout the world for his interpretations, his personality and his commitment in many fields through music, Yo-Yo Ma was born on October 7, 1955 in Paris, to Chinese parents established in the French capital. He began to study the cello with his father at the age of 4. In 1962, his family moved to New York. Child prodigy, he already played at the age of 7 for Presidents Kennedy and Eisenhower during a charity concert at the National Cultural Center.
Heavily influenced by cellist Pablo Casals, Yo-Yo Ma adopts Casals' philosophy according to which one must see oneself first as a human being, before one's ambitions as a musician or cellist.
Yo-Yo Ma is also distinguished by his open-mindedness by working regularly with artists from other musical traditions such as the composer and bandoneonist Astor Piazzolla, the violinist Leonidas Kavakos or the contemporary dancer Lil Buck.
His
Silkroad Ensemble
was created to “
know what happens when strangers meet
”.
The Central Institute for Restoration (Italy)
The incentive prize for young artists was awarded to the Higher Training School of the Central Institute for Restoration in Italy, founded in 1939 with the aim of conserving and restoring the vast artistic and cultural heritage of the Italy.
Today, "a
whole team of restorers, historians, chemists, physicists, biologists, zoologists and anthropologists work together at the ICR
".
Training in school laboratories and in the field, for example, when students "
face damage from natural disasters, such as earthquakes
".
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