Sophie Calle at the Musee Picasso, 2024. Photo credit: Yves Géant
Sophie Calle is the recipient of the 35th Praemium Imperiale Award for Painting. She is among five international recipients of the award presented by the Japan Art Association under the honorary patronage of Japan’s Royal Family.
The Praemium Imperiale is a group of awards for the arts established to mark the centennial of the Japan Art Association (honorary patron: Prince Hitachi, chairman: Hisashi Hieda) and to realize the wish of the late Prince Takamatsu “to contribute to enhancing and promoting the cultures and arts of the world.”
The International Advisors who recommend candidates are Lamberto Dini (former Prime Minister of Italy), Christopher Patten (Chancellor of the University of Oxford), Klaus-Dieter Lehmann (former President of the Goethe-Institut), Jean-Pierre Raffarin (former Prime Minister of France) and Hillary Rodham Clinton (former Secretary of State of USA).
With the help of their nomination committees, the International Advisors annually recommend candidates in each of five categories: painting, sculpture, architecture, music and theatre/film. Selection committees in the Japan Art Association review these recommendations and select one laureate in each category. Each of the five laureates receives an honorarium of 15 million yen, and a testimonial letter and medal that are presented to them at an awards ceremony held annually in autumn in Tokyo.
Today, the Praemium Imperiale is the world's largest and most prestigious art prize in the five disciplines of painting, sculpture, architecture, music and theater/cinema.