Griselda Pollock, a Canadian and British art historian known for her pioneering feminist studies in the discipline, won the Holberg Prize, one of the largest international awards given to scholars in the humanities, social sciences, and law or in theology.
The awards committee, in a quote, called Ms. Pollock “the greatest feminist art historian working today”. “Since the 1970s, Pollock has been teaching and publishing in a field in which she is not only a renowned authority, but which she helped to create,” wrote the committee. The panel also noted its contributions to the field of film studies and cultural history in general.
The Holberg Prize, awarded for the first time in 2004, has a prize of 6 million Norwegian kroner, or approximately $ 650,000, and is awarded each year to a researcher who has made an exceptional contribution in the fields of science. humanities, social sciences, law or theology. The award is funded by the Norwegian government. Past winners include Paul Gilroy, Cass Sunstein and Onora O’Neill.
Ms. Pollock is a professor at the University of Leeds. She has published 22 monographs, and four more to be published. His 1981 book, “Old Mistresses: Women, Art and Ideology”, co-written with Rozsika Parker, was a radical critique of the discipline of art history and its canon. He became a classic text in feminist art history, much like his 1988 book, “Vision and difference: femininity, feminism and art stories. “
“I have spent 40 years creating new concepts with which to challenge the white patriarchal structure of art history to produce ways of thinking about art,” said Ms. Pollock in a statement, “her images, its practices, its effects which are not a matter of admiration for selective size. “
Gender is just one of the many goals through which she has sought to reframe the study of art history. In 2001, she founded the Center for Cultural Analysis, Theory and History, a transdisciplinary project linking the study of art history with gender, class, sexuality, post-colonial and queer theory. “I analyze and resist the wounds of class, race, sex, sexuality as they are inflicted through images and cultural forms such as the media, cinema, art, literature and thought academic, “she said.
Hazel Genn, chair of the Holberg committee, said that Ms. Pollock was “a beacon for generations of art and cultural historians.”