Wolfgang Tillmans Wins Europe’s Richest Art Prize

Community

The first public exhibition of Jack White’s artwork, Cheryl Finley gets the David C. Driskell Prize, and more news to know.

Art Movements, published every Thursday afternoon, is a roundup of must-know news, appointments, awards, and other happenings in today’s chaotic art world.

Wolfgang Tillmans Wins Big

Photographer Wolfgang Tillmans is the winner of this year’s Roswitha Haftmann Prize, established in 2001 in honor of the Swiss art dealer and administered by the Kunsthaus Zürich. At CHF 150,000 (~$191,361), it is Europe’s largest monetary award for living visual artists. Past recipients include Cindy Sherman, Sigmar Polke, and Cecilia Vicuña. The German artist is recognized for “the entirety of his artistic oeuvre and for his social commitment,” according to a press statement.

Cheryl Finley Gets the Driskell Prize

The Spelman College professor was named the 2026 recipient of the David C. Driskell Prize, the High Museum of Art’s $50,000 award dedicated to honoring contributions to African American art and art history. Finley, the director of the Atlanta University Center Art History + Curatorial Studies Collective at Spelman, has also co-organized Black Portraiture[s], a global academic conference dedicated to African diasporic art, since 2013.

What Else Happened?

• El Museo del Barrio will honor Isabel and Agustín Coppel, J Balvin, and Estrellita Brodsky with its Tony Bechara Legacy Award.
• Art Basel has announced the more than 200 exhibitors in the fifth edition of its Paris fair, taking place this fall.
• The Art Bridges Foundation in Bentonville, Arkansas, has acquired Consuelo Jimenez Underwood’s “C. Jane Run” (2005), according to Ruiz-Healy Art, the gallery that represents the artist.

Fell in Love With a Sculpture

I fell in love once and almost completely … 🎶 As a teenager, I remember reading that before the White Stripes made it big, frontman Jack White worked as a furniture upholsterer and would hide copies of his records by stitching them beneath layers of fabric. So it came as little surprise (but no less of a delight) to learn that the guitarist, singer, songwriter, and literal jack-of-all-trades is also a visual artist with a committed material practice. Jack White’s found-object sculpture, design, interactive pieces, and installations will go on public view for the first time at Damien Hirst’s Newport Street Gallery starting on May 29. Who needs a bass player?