The Kandinsky Prize, named after Russian

Russians

The Russian people are an East Slavic ethnic group native to Russia, speaking the Russian language and primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries....

 painter Wassily Kandinsky

Wassily Kandinsky

Wassily Wassilyevich Kandinsky was an influential Russian painter and art theorist. He is credited with painting the first purely-abstract works. Born in Moscow, Kandinsky spent his childhood in Odessa. He enrolled at the University of Moscow, studying law and economics...

 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

Contemporary art

Contemporary art can be defined variously as art produced at this present point in time or art produced since World War II. The definition of the word contemporary would support the first view, but museums of contemporary art commonly define their collections as consisting of art produced...

, and to reinforce Russian art’s status within the world. In total, 55,000 euros are awarded to the artist.

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

New media

New media is a broad term in media studies that emerged in the latter part of the 20th century. For example, new media holds out a possibility of on-demand access to content any time, anywhere, on any digital device, as well as interactive user feedback, creative participation and community...

 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.

Background

On September 20, 2007, Deutsche Bank

Deutsche Bank

Deutsche Bank AG is a global financial service company with its headquarters in Frankfurt, Germany. It employs more than 100,000 people in over 70 countries, and has a large presence in Europe, the Americas, Asia Pacific and the emerging markets...

 and ArtChronika presented their nominations of over 250 names for the Kandinsky Prize in a press conference. Their work was displayed in exhibitions

Art exhibition

Art exhibitions are traditionally the space in which art objects meet an audience. The exhibit is universally understood to be for some temporary period unless, as is rarely true, it is stated to be a "permanent exhibition". In American English, they may be called "exhibit", "exposition" or...

 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

Moscow Biennale

The Moscow Biennale of Contemporary Art is one of the most important Russian cultural events and was founded in 2003.- First Moscow Biennale of Contemporary Art :...

, 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.

2007

Young Artist (aged up to 30)

• Vladlena Gromova

Media Art Project of the Year

• Vladislav Mamyshev-Monroe

Artist of the Year

• Anatoly Osmolovsky

People's Choice Award

• Peter Goloschapov

2008

Young Artist (aged up to 30)

• Diana Machulina

Media Art Project of the Year

• PG Group (Ilya Falkovsky, Alexey Katalkin and Boris Spiridonov)

Artist of the Year

• Alexey Belyaev-Gintovt

2009

Young Artist (aged up to 30)

• Evgeny Antufiev

Media Art Project of the Year

• Electroboutique (Aristarkh Chernyshev and Alexey Shulgin)

Artist of the Year

• Vadim Zakharov