Jenny Holzer and Andy Goldsworthy Named Praemium Imperiale Laureates

Jenny Holzer and Andy Goldsworthy are among the 2026 Praemium Imperiale laureates, announced today (8 September) by the Japan Art Association.

Considered “the Nobel Prize of the Arts”, since 1989 the Praemium Imperiale has recognised groups and individuals whose achievements have had a profound international influence in their respective fields. Awards are given annually in painting, sculpture, architecture, theatre/film and music.

The laureates are selected from a list submitted to the Japan Art Association by six international advisers. Each laureate receives an honorarium of JPY 15 million (£71,000).

“Art should be itself”

Jenny Holzer, known for her large-scale text-based works, is painting laureate. “Art should be itself, whether that’s wholly abstract, utterly inscrutable or polemical—I don’t prescribe,” Holzer said in a video recorded for the Praemium Imperiale announcement.

The US artist’s text-based Truisms and Inflammatory essays first appeared anonymously in New York City during the 1970s. She won the Golden Lion at the 1990 Venice Biennale and her works (now using others’ words as well as her own) have appeared in Times Square and at the Guggenheim museums. Her exhibition J’ai vu opens at the Musée d’Orsay in Paris on 20 October.

Andy Goldsworthy has been named sculpture laureate. His five-decade practice examines humanity’s relationship with the land, through both permanent and ephemeral works. “Art… allows you these routes into the world that you were blind to,” he said in a video recorded for the award. He is currently working on Hanging Stones, a 10km walking route between 10 formerly derelict North Yorkshire houses that have been rebuilt as artworks, which he has described as “the most important work of my life”.

The architecture laureate is Daniel Libeskind, designer of the rebuilt World Trade Centre and the Jewish Museum Berlin (2001). His studio’s work includes museums, university campuses and concert halls, and the practice is currently designing the Albert Einstein Discovery Centre in Ulm, Germany, a landmark intended to communicate both Einstein’s scientific accomplishments and his pacifism.

Academy Award-winning actor Cate Blanchett, currently starring in Electra/Persona at the National Theatre in London, is theatre/film laureate. Known for The Aviator (2004) and Carol (2015), among many other films, Blanchett also created the Displacement Film Fund, which finances and champions the work of displaced filmmakers, and is a global goodwill ambassador for the UNHCR.

The music laureate is conductor Herbert Blomstedt, who has worked for internationally acclaimed orchestras including the Oslo Philharmonic, the San Francisco Symphony and the Danish Radio Symphony.

Chris Patten, Praemium Imperiale’s UK international adviser, said: “This year’s laureates share an immense passion for their respective craft as well as the land and people that inspire their art. Together their body of work celebrates the beauty and transformative power of art for the individual and the society.”

As well as the Praemium Imperiale awards, the Grant for Young Artists is a programme offering an annual grant of YJP 5 million (£24,000) to a group or institution that encourages young people’s involvement in the arts. The 2026 recipient is La Source Garouste, an organisation that empowers around 10,000 disadvantaged children each year, driving social change through art.