2013 AAMC Awards for Excellence Announced

ASSOCIATION OF ART MUSEUM CURATORS ANNOUNCES

THE RECIPIENTS OF THE

ANNUAL AWARDS FOR EXCELLENCE IN 2012

For Release May 6, 2013, New York, NY

The Association of Art Museum Curators (AAMC) announced today its annual Awards for Excellence in the categories of museum catalogues, articles, and exhibitions. All members of the AAMC are eligible for nomination, and the winners are determined by the organization’s membership. "This year we were proud to acknowledge eleven publications and exhibitions that represent exceptional curatorial innovation and insight,” says Executive Director, Sally Block.

In the field of publications, the AAMC has honored the New-York Historical Society’s Audubon’s Aviary: The Original Watercolors for "The Birds of America” as Outstanding Permanent Collection Catalogue. Written by Roberta J. M. Olson, "This volume presents an important contribution to an understudied collection in an attractive package enticing to the public and specialists alike,” remarks prize jury chair, Margaret Conrads, Deputy Director of Art and Research at the Amon Carter Museum of American Art. "The New-York Historical Society is to be applauded for supporting what will surely be the standard reference on the subject for many years." Honorable mention for this category was awarded to Decorative Arts and Design: The Montreal Museum of Fine Arts’ Collection – Volume II, with contributions by over forty-five authors. 

The award for Outstanding Exhibition Catalogue was divided into two categories this year: monographic and thematic. Carolyn Putney, catalogue jury chair and Chief Curator and Curator of Asian Art at the Toledo Museum of Art commented, "The field of nominations for the "Outstanding Exhibition Catalogue" was absolutely incredible this year. Our criteria were scholarship, contribution to the field, timeliness/relevance, design, and finally clarity of presentation both written and visual. Many catalogues had most of the criteria, but the winners, we felt, hit every point. We thoroughly enjoyed this daunting task and congratulate all of our colleagues for their dedication and excellent work.”

Extravagant Inventions: The Princely Furniture of the Roentgens, written by Wolfram Koeppe and published by the Metropolitan Museum of Art, was honored for Outstanding Monographic Exhibition Catalogue. Richard Artschwager!, written by Jennifer Gross and published by the Whitney Museum of American Art, received an honorable mention for this category.

The exhibition "Inventing Abstraction, 1910-1925,” organized by Leah Dickerman with Masha Chlenova at The Museum of Modern Art, and its accompanying catalogue took home two awards - Outstanding Thematic Exhibition and Outstanding Thematic Exhibition Catalogue.

The awards will be formally announced at the AAMC’s 12^th Annual Meeting on May 6, 2013 at the New-York Historical Society. The following is a complete list of winners (AAMC member’s names are listed in italics):

Outstanding EXHIBITION CATALOGUES

Outstanding Thematic Catalogue:

Leah Dickerman, with contributions by Matthew Affron, Yve-Alain Bois, Masha Chlenova, Ester Coen, Christoph Cox, Hubert Damisch, Rachael Z. DeLue, Hal Foster, Mark Franko, Matthew Gale, Peter Galison, Maria Gough, Jodi Hauptman, Gordon Hughes, David Joselit, Anton Kaes, David Lang, Susan Laxton, Glenn D. Lowry, Philippe-Alain Michaud, Jaroslaw Suchan, Lanka Tatersall, and Michael R. Taylor

Inventing Abstraction, 1910-1925: How A Radical Idea Changed Modern Art, New York: The Museum of Modern Art Museum of Art, 2012.

Outstanding Monographic Catalogue:

Wolfram Koeppe

Extravagant Inventions: The Princely Furniture of the Roentgens, New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2012.

Outstanding Monographic Catalogue Honorable Mention:

Jennifer R. Gross with contributions by Cathleen Chaffee, Ingrid Schaffner, and Adam D. Weinberg 

Richard Artschwager!, New York: Whitney Museum of American Art, 2012.

Outstanding Permanent Collection catalogueS

First Place

Roberta J.M. Olson with contributions by Marjorie Shelley and Alexandra Mazzitelli

Audubon’s Aviary: The Original Watercolors for "The Birds of America”, New York: New-York Historical Society and Skira/Rizzoli, 2012.

Honorable Mention

General Editors Rosalind Pepall, Senior Curator of Decorative Arts (early and modern), and Diane Charbonneau, Curator of Contemporary Decorative Arts.

Decorative Arts and Design: The Montreal Museum of Fine Arts’ Collection – Volume II, Montreal: Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, 2012.

Outstanding Catalogue EssayS

First Place

Jon L. Seydl, The Paul and J. Edith Ingalls Vignos Jr. Curator of European Painting and Sculpture, 1500-1800, Cleveland Museum of Art

"The Last Days of Pompeii,” in Victoria Gardner Coates, Kenneth Lapatin, Jon L. Seydl, et al., The Last Days of Pompeii: Decadence, Apocalypse, Resurrection, exh. cat. (Los Angeles: Getty Publications, 2012), 15-31.

Honorable Mention

Simon Kelly, Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art, Saint Louis Art Museum 
"A Big, Good Enterprise’: Van Gogh and His Markets,” in Richard Kendall, Teio Meedendorp, Nicole Myers, Timothy J. Standring, Louis van Tilborgh, Evert van Uitert et al., Becoming Van Gogh, exh. cat. (New Haven: Yale University Press in association with Denver Art Museum, 2012), 54-69.

Outstanding Monographic or Retrospective Exhibition

"Federico Barocci: Renaissance Master”

Judith Mann and Babette Bohn, curators 

Saint Louis Art Museum

Outstanding Thematic Exhibition

"Inventing Abstraction, 1910-1925”

Organized by Leah Dickerman, curator, with Masha Chlenova, curatorial assistant
The Museum of Modern Art

Outstanding Exhibition in a University Museum

"Sol LeWitt: The Well-Tempered Grid”

Charles W. Haxthausen, curator

Williams College Museum of Art

Outstanding Small Exhibition (based on square footage: no more than 2,000 square feet)

"African Art, New York, and the Avant-Garde”

Yaëlle Biro, curator

The Metropolitan Museum of Art