New Award Recognizes Artists Under 35Source: Artinfo. Author: December 8th, 2009

Immediately following the announcement of the Turner Prize winner in London last night, the Victor Pinchuk Foundation has announced plans to start a new $100,000 prize, which will be given every two years to an artist under the age of 35. Unlike many of the contemporary art world’s other prestigious accolades, such as the Turner and Hugo Boss prizes, the award — called the Future Generation Art Prize — will accept nominations from the general public via a Web site. A jury that includes the likes of singer Elton John and fashion designer Miuccia Prada will pick the eventual winner.

Winners hoping to simply rest on their laurels and live off the sizable financial prize will unfortunately have to contend with a special stipulation: $40,000 must be spent on the production of new art. Pinchuk, who runs the PinchukArtCentre in Kiev (which will soon be expanded) and is the reported to be the largest purchaser of Damien Hirst’s new line of paintings, says that he does not want the lucky artist to stop working.

Pinchuk plans to be able to announce 20 short-listed artists on June 22 who will then show their work at his Kiev space. A final winner — and five runners-up — will be decided in December. Even the artists who don’t win have reasons to be excited, though. Pinchuk has said that artists such as Damien Hirst, Jeff Koons, and Andreas Gursky (all of whom feature in his collection) will be available to serve as mentors for the young artists.