Yoko Ono has been awarded Austria’s highest recognition for contemporary art, it was announced at a press conference Mar 2 in Vienna. Named after the expressionist painter and playwright who lived from 1886 to 1980, the Oskar Kokoschka Prize confers a grant of EUR 20,000 to recipients and is administered by the University of Applied Arts Vienna. Led by Gerald Bast, the rector of the university, the jury cited Ono’s early works Wall Piece for Orchestra and Cut Piece as among her most noteworthy. In a statement, they commended the artist’s “pursuit of artistic innovation with the assertion of art’s efficacy in society, which is convincing evidenced in her political engagement for peace and human rights. This is the latest in a string of major prizes for Ono, who was awarded the Hiroshima Art Prize in 2011 and the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement at the 2009 Venice Biennale, alongside John Baldessari. Previous winners of the prize, awarded biennially since 1981, include William Kentridge (2008), VALIE EXPORT (2000), Agnes Martin (), Gerhard Richter (1985) and Mario Merz (1983).
