From left, National Medal of Arts recipients Mark Bradford and Carrie Mae Weems. | Photos: Courtesy of Mark Bradford; © Rolex, Audoin Desforges. Courtesy the artist and Gladstone Gallery, New York, Fraenkel Gallery, San Francisco, and Galerie Barbara Thumm, Berlin
The President will also award National Humanities Medals today
PRESIDENT BIDEN is celebrating excellence in the arts and humanities. Biden is awarding the National Medal of Arts to visual artists Mark Bradford and Carrie Mae Weems, and filmmaker Spike Lee. The artists are among 20 recipients the President will recognize with the National Medal of Arts, the highest honor given to artists and patrons of the arts by the federal government.
The 2022 and 2023 National Medals of Arts will be awarded in a private ceremony at the White House this evening, followed by remarks that will be live-streamed on the White House website. The event will also include a presentation of the National Humanities Medals. The news was announced this morning.
Recipients of the National Medal of Arts are pioneers and models in their fields. Los Angeles-based Bradford makes complex, abstract paintings that explore social and political structures and the adverse ways they impact vulnerable communities. An artist and activist, Bradford is the co-founder of Art & Practice in Leimert Park, a nonprofit that supports local transition-age foster youth and children experiencing displacement around the world. “Mark Bradford: Exotica” recently opened at Hauser & Wirth Hong Kong and “Mark Bradford: Keep Walking,” the artists’ first solo exhibition in Germany, is currently on view at the Hamburger Bahnhof – National Gallery of Contemporary Art in Berlin.
The longstanding artistic practice of Weems is an insightful meditation on race, history, and power. She works across photography, video, and installations. Her best known work, “The Kitchen Table Series” (1990), examines the experiences of women. A few weeks ago, she launched “Contested Sites of Memory: A Performance with Artist Carrie Mae Weems” at the Institute for Contemporary Art at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, Va. The traveling performance about racial healing will be staged in New York and Washington, D.C., in 2025. Scheduled to coincide with the Presidential election, “Carrie Mae Weems: The Shape of Things” is currently on view at Gladstone Gallery in New York. The exhibition is anchored by “Cyclorama: The Shape of Things” (2021) a video installation in the round that explores the history of racial justice and contemporary police killings of unarmed Black men. Part of a For Freedoms initiative, a billboard by Weems was installed near the Democratic National Convention in Chicago in August. The billboard featured images of Weems standing before the Lincoln Memorial, accompanied by the following text: “With democracy in the balance there is only one choice.”
Lee’s movies are cultural touchstones. Over more than three decades, his seminal films have included early projects such as “Do The Right Thing,” “She’s Gotta Have It,” “Crooklyn,” and “Mo’ Better Blues”; a biopic of Malcolm X and “4 Little Girls,” a documentary about the bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church that killed four Black Girls in 1963; and big budget features like “Inside Man” and “BlacKkKlansman,” for which Lee won the Oscar for Best Screenplay in 2019. He found success through perseverance, creating a path and opportunities for other Black directors in film and television. Sharing his wisdom in the classroom, Lee is a professor of film at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts. His passion for cinema, art, culture, sports, and history was showcased in “Spike Lee: Creative Sources,” a recent Brooklyn Museum exhibition dedicated to his expansive collections.
“The arts enrich our lives, helping us to ask questions, imagine new possibilities, and create community.” — NEH Chair Maria Rosario Jackson
THE PRESIDENT is recognizing artists across disciplines, from painting, to hip hop music and documentary filmmaking. The 11 recipients of the 2022 National Medal of Arts, include Weems; sculptor Ruth Asawa (1926-2013); Melissa “Missy” Elliott, artist and producer; and the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum in Nashville, Tenn. The nine artists recognized with 2023 National Medals of the Arts, include Bradford and Lee; documentary filmmaker Ken Burns; painter Alex Katz; Queen Latifah, artist and actress; and filmmaker Steven Spielberg.
In a statement, National Endowment for the Arts Chair Maria Rosario Jackson said: “The arts enrich our lives, helping us to ask questions, imagine new possibilities, and create community. The NEA is pleased to join President Biden in congratulating the 2022 and 2023 National Medal of Arts recipients whose curiosity, creativity, hard work, and dedication have inspired and touched so many in our country and around the globe.”
Nineteen recipients of the 2022 and 2023 National Humanities Medals will also be honored by the President this evening. The National Humanities Medals recognizes writers, historians, educators, and filmmakers, honoring individuals and organizations “whose work has deepened the nation’s understanding of the human experience, broadened citizens’ engagement with history or literature, or helped preserve and expand Americans’ access to cultural resources.”
This group includes Ford Foundation President Darren Walker (2023), who heads a leading philanthropy and key funder of the arts, and Ruth J. Simmons (2022), the groundbreaking university administrator. Simmons led Smith College (1995-2001), the largest women’s college in the nation and then became the first Black president of an Ivy League university when she served as president of Brown University (2001-12). Subsequently, Simmons headed Prairie View A&M University (2017-23), the Texas HBCU.
“The National Humanities Medal recipients have enriched our world through writing that moves and inspires us; scholarship that enlarges our understanding of the past; and through their dedication to educating, informing, and giving voice to communities and histories often overlooked.”
— NEH Chair Shelly C. Lowe
Poet Joy Harjo and Jon Meacham, the author and historian, are also among the 2022 National Humanities Medal recipients. The 2023 honorees include Anthony Bourdain (1956-2018), chef, author and TV host; LeVar Burton, actor and literacy advocate; filmmaker Dawn Porter; Aaron Sorkin, playwright, screenwriter, and director; and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, another major funder of the arts, which is led by Elizabeth Alexander.
“The National Humanities Medal recipients have enriched our world through writing that moves and inspires us; scholarship that enlarges our understanding of the past; and through their dedication to educating, informing, and giving voice to communities and histories often overlooked,” NEH Chair Shelly C. Lowe (Navajo) said in a statement. “I am proud to join President Biden in recognizing these distinguished leaders for their outstanding contributions to our nation’s cultural life.” CT
SEE FULL LISTS of National Medal of Arts recipients and National Humanities Medal recipients for 2022 and 2023
FIND MORE The private White House ceremony will be followed by live-streamed remarks this evening, Oct. 21, 2024 at 5:30 p.m. EST. Speakers include President Biden, First Lady Jill Biden, NEA Chair Maria Rosario Jackson, and NEH Chair Shelly C. Lowe (Navajo)
FIND MORE about Carrie Mae Weems on her website, Gladstone Gallery, and Instagram; about Mark Bradford at Hauser & Wirth gallery and Art & Practice; and about Spike Lee on Instagram
