Isa Genzken Wins the Nasher Prize for Sculpture

Isa Genzken, the prolific and elusive German artist, has won the 2019 Nasher Prize, which honors excellence in sculpture and comes with $100,000.

For four decades, Genzken has drawn praise for her exploration of many aesthetics and mediums, including video, photography and collages. Her perceptive architectural installations and their historical themes, including reconstruction in Germany and the War on Terror, have made her one of the leading artists of the postwar era.

Her works have been featured at major institutions and exhibitions, including the Venice Biennale, Documenta in Germany and the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago. In 2013, the Museum of Modern Art presented a survey of her sculptures; Roberta Smith wrote in her New York Times review that the exhibit “makes the museum feel alive and part of the art world, rather than a tourist destination.”

During her expansive and tumultuous career, Genzken has also suffered from alcoholism, bipolar disorder and injuries, including when she fractured her skull in 2013, and her works reflect these battles. (“I’m getting stronger every day,” she said in a rare interview that year with The New York Times.) Her piece “Rose III,” a 26-foot-tall steel rose, was recently installed in Zuccotti Park in New York.

“We’d be hard pressed to name an artist with a more textured and dynamic sculptural practice than Isa Genzken,” Jeremy Strick, the Nasher Sculpture Center’s director, said in a statement.

This is the fourth year that the Nasher Sculpture Center in Dallas has awarded this prize; this year’s jury panel included the artists Phyllida Barlow and Huma Bhabha. The previous recipients of the prize were Theaster Gates, Pierre Huyghe and Doris Salcedo.

Genzken will be presented the award at an April ceremony in Dallas.