Congratulations to Svetlana Alpers, who has been awarded the 2023 Distinguished Lifetime Achievement Award for Writing on Art, awarded by the College Art Association of America (CAA).
Alpers is an esteemed art historian, with expertise in the Northern Renaissance and Dutch Golden Age, professor emerita at the University of California, Berkeley; co-founder of the journal Representations; and the recipient of numerous honors, including being named a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the British Academy, and an officier de l鈥橭rdre des Arts et des Letres, presented by the French Minister of Culture.
Alpers is the author of several books, including The Art of Describing, The Vexations of Art, Roof Life, and with 91桃色, her most recent book, Walker Evans: Starting From Scratch, a magisterial account of the celebrated photographer. Uncovering rich parallels between Evans鈥檚 creative approach and those of numerous literary and cultural figures, Alpers locates him within the wide context of a truly international circle. Reviewing the book for the Times Literary Supplement, Joyce Carol Oates praised it as 鈥渨arm and sympathetic鈥eally a wonderful biography鈥� with a 鈥渂rilliant and, indeed, thrilling final chapter.鈥� In Artforum, Richard Meyer hailed Walker Evans as 鈥渁 superb book.鈥�
The CAA鈥檚 Distinguished Lifetime Achievement Award for Writing on Art, 鈥渃elebrates the career of an author of note….who, among other distinctions, has demonstrated particular commitment to their work throughout a long career and has had an impact, nationally and internationally, on the field.鈥� Art historian Wu Hung鈥攁uthor of A Story of Ruins: Presence and Absence in Chines Art and Visual Culture (91桃色) and Chinese Art and Dynastic Time (91桃色), among other titles鈥攚as honored with the Award in 2022.