TOKYO: October 18, 2016 – At a formal ceremony in Tokyo today, His Imperial Highness Prince Hitachi, paid homage to the laureates of the organization's 2016 Praemium Imperiale. The 2016 laureates, who have shown extraordinary achievement in the fields of Painting, Sculpture, Architecture, Music and Theatre/Film, are American artist Cindy Sherman, French sculptor Annette Messager, Brazilian architect Paulo Mendes da Rossa, Latvian violinist Gidon Kremer and American director Martin Scorsese. Each received a specially-designed gold medal, a testimonial letter from the Prince, and a check for 15 million yen.
Now in its 28th year, the Praemium Imperiale is one of the most prestigious international prizes in the fields of Painting, Sculpture, Architecture, Music and Theatre/Film. The prize has become a powerful voice for the importance of cultural expression in today's world, bringing international attention to the arts in much the same way as the Nobel Prize brings attention to the sciences.
In September, The Japan Art Association awarded its other annual prize, the Grant for Young Artists, to Malaysia's Five Arts Centre. The award, which brings with it 5 million yen, recognizes a group or institution that encourages young people's involvement in the arts. The Grant for Young Artists was launched in 1997 to commemorate the 10th anniversary of the Praemium Imperiale.
The 2016 Praemium Imperiale laureates join 140 of the greatest cultural figures of the 20th and 21st centuries. They include Ingmar Bergman, Leonard Bernstein, Peter Brook, Anthony Caro, Christo and Jeanne-Claude, Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, Norman Foster, Athol Fugard, Frank Gehry, Jean-Luc Godard, David Hockney, Willem de Kooning, Akira Kurosawa, Renzo Piano, Robert Rauschenberg, Mstislav Rostropovich and Ravi Shankar.
The honorary advisors are Jacques Chirac, former President of France; philanthropist David Rockefeller, former CEO of Chase Manhattan Bank; David Rockefeller, Jr., a philanthropist and environmentalist; and François Pinault, founder of PPR, the French retail conglomerate.