On 3 January, The Wolf Foundation announced the recipients of the 2017 Wolf Prize, The Times of Israel reports. Musician, film director and artist Laurie Anderson shares the award for art with conceptual artist Lawrence Weiner. The artists, both based in New York, were chosen for the ‘radicalism and avant-garde at the core of their work, and for inspiring generations to come.’ Of Anderson’s work, the panel said that in ‘breaking the boundaries between media and expanding the range of creativity… She can be characterized as a symbol of our time — always trying new options and challenging norms.’ Weiner was lauded as a pioneer of conceptual art through his ‘unprecedented use of language as material’.
Known as the ‘Israeli Nobel Prize’, the award aims to celebrate achievements across the arts and sciences. Each year five awards are given on rotation; the disciplines honoured for 2017 were physics, chemistry, mathematics, medicine and art.
Anderson and Weiner will share $100,000 in prize money.
5 January 2017