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Established in 1988 by the Japan Art Association in memory of Prince Takamatsu, the Praemium Imperiale is an international arts prize often called the “Nobel Prize for the arts,” since the Nobel Prizes have no arts category.
It honors five laureates a year—in Painting, Sculpture, Architecture, Music, and Theatre/Film—each receiving ¥15 million (about $100,000). Past winners include David Hockney and Martin Scorsese. This year’s Sculpture laureate is Andy Goldsworthy.
A leading figure in land art, Andy Goldsworthy creates works from natural materials that respond to the unique character of their surroundings. He lives in Penpont, in southwest Scotland, and has continued to create work amid its natural surroundings, guided by a belief that art and nature are one and the same.
From Yorkshire Farms to the World Stage
Goldsworthy spent his childhood and youth in Yorkshire and studied at Bradford College of Art. He later took on work on a local farm to support himself, which shaped his approach to making art.
Using gathered leaves, branches, and stones, along with natural elements such as snow, sunlight, and rain—and sometimes even his own body—he has created outdoor installations around the world.
His works are deliberately ephemeral. Once completed and photographed, he leaves them to decay and disappear naturally.
Permanent Works, Built to Change
He has also taken on large-scale projects, among them Storm King Wall, a stone wall running through the grounds of an art center in New York, and Hanging Stones, which reconstructs a historic Yorkshire structure.
Even these more permanent works, he says, are meant to accept change—something he describes, in a sense, as an act of hope. He has no intention of preserving them for future generations.
Ties to Japan
Goldsworthy first visited Japan in 1987 for a residency in Ouchiyama village in Mie Prefecture (now part of Taiki town), work that led to solo exhibitions in Tochigi and Tokyo in 1993 and 1994.
Recognition and Current Work
Goldsworthy was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire in 2000. His solo exhibitions have appeared at major institutions including the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Reina Sofía Museum, and a 2025 retrospective at the Royal Scottish Academy traced half a century of his career.
His current project, Gravestones, gathers the stones removed during burials. It reflects his belief that people are deeply connected to the land and that the landscape embodies the full range of human emotion.
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Author: The Sankei Shimbun
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