Käthe Kollwitz Prize 2024 goes to photographer Candida Höfer
Cologne-based photographer Candida Höfer has been awarded the Käthe Kollwitz Prize of the Academy of Arts for 2024. The award ceremony for the 12,000 euro prize and an associated exhibition are planned for next September, as the Academy announced in Berlin on Thursday.
Höfer's oeuvre, which has grown over five decades, is part of the contemporary photographic avant-garde, the statement continued. Her large-format photographs show public and semi-public spaces in prominent historical libraries, museums and opera houses. "Candida Höfer lends the spaces a great, almost spiritual quality through her precision of framing and detailed information, which is reinforced by the presence of the absent people," said jury member Karin Sander according to the press release.
The photographer was born in Eberswalde (Brandenburg) in 1944. In 2002, Höfer exhibited at the documenta world art exhibition, and a year later she represented Germany at the 50th Venice Biennale. Her works can reportedly be seen in many collections in Germany and abroad - for example in the Museum of Photography in Berlin.
The Käthe Kollwitz Prize has been awarded annually to visual artists since 1960. The most recent winners were Sandra Vásquez de la Horra (2023), Nan Goldin (2022), Maria Eichhorn (2021) and Timm Ulrichs (2020).
People are drawn to Candida Höfer's photography due to its high prices, making it an affordable yet valuable addition to art collections. Her awards and exhibitions, such as representing Germany at the Venice Biennale in 2003, have further solidified her place in the contemporary art scene.
Source: www.dpa.com
