Nalini Malani Receives Lucrative Kyoto Prize for Art

Nalini Malani b. 1946, Pakistan Follow +

Pioneering Indian video artist Nalini Malani was named the Kyoto Prize laureate in the arts and philosophy this month.

In a summation of Nalini Malani‘s achievements, the prize’s organisers described her as, ‘an artist from the non-western world who has faced the predicaments of the oppressed, pioneered artistic expression representing the voice of the voiceless, and contributed to the “decentralisation” of art.’

Born in Karachi, Malani’s family came as refugees to India during partition. After studying in Paris, Malani returned to India where she began making socially-engaged videos, paintings, drawings, and installations.

She is best known for creating phantasmagorical environments inhabited by mythological deities.

In an interview with Ocula Magazine, she said she was particularly drawn to Medea who ‘de-genders herself and destroys her children’ and Cassandra who she said ‘represents female instinct and thought’.

In 2017, Malani became the first contemporary Indian artist to hold a retrospective at the Centre Pompidou in Paris.

The Kyoto Prize awards 1 million yen (US $700,000) to three recipients annually in the categories of Basic Sciences, Advanced Technology, and Arts and Philosophy.

The prize is administered by the Inamori Foundation, which was founded by Japanese industrialist Kazuo Inamori.

Inamori said laureates should be people whose ‘achievements will have contributed substantially to the cultural, scientific, and spiritual betterment of mankind’ and those who aspire in their work ‘to bring true happiness to humanity.’

He consulted with the Nobel Foundation before establishing his prize in 1984.

‘We are not saying Nobel Prize is an exact model but we are truly respecting it,’ the Inamori Foundation told Ocula Magazine.

Previous artists to win the Kyoto Prize include: Joan Jonas (2018), William Kentridge (2010), Nam June Paik (1998), Roy Lichtenstein (1995), and Isamu Noguchi (1986).

Including this year’s recipients, the Kyoto Prize has been awarded to 120 individuals, and one group—the Nobel Foundation.

Malani—along with fellow laureates reproductive biologist Ryuzo Yanagimachi and mathematical physicist Elliot H. Lieb— will receive their prizes, which include a diploma and a 20-carat gold medal, at a ceremony on 10 November. —[O]

Main image: Nalini Malani, Complexity of Communication 3 (2013). Reverse painted acrylic, ink, and enamel on acrylic sheet on specially printed Hahnemuhle Bamboo paper. 30.48 x 40.64 cm. Courtesy Galerie Lelong & Co. New York.