Bruce Nauman’s Pavilion Wins Top Prize at Venice Biennale for Philadelphia Museum of Art

By Steve Delahoyde on June 8, 2009 9:03 AM

Some good news for Philadelphia by way of Venice. Over the weekend, the city learned that the Philadelphia Museum of Art had snapped up a Venice Biennale Golden Lion in the best national pavilion category for their “Bruce Nauman: Topological Garden” (and by extension, Bruce Nauman also must have been fairly pleased, this being his second Lion win in just a decade). According to the Philadelphia Inquirer, the win is the first for the U.S. in the pavilion department in almost twenty years, which has to make everyone at the museum plenty pleased. Here’s a bit:

In a ceremony at the Pavilion attended by Italian president Giorgio Napolitano, the museum accepted honors for “Bruce Nauman: Topological Garden,” echoing the capture of a similar top award two decades ago for its Jasper Johns show.

“We’re all so happy,” said Art Museum chairman H.F. “Gerry” Lenfest. “What it represents to me is what a great loss it was when Anne d’Harnoncourt died a year ago, and the museum has not lost a step despite that. This to me is a great achievement…and nobody would have been more excited than Anne d’Harnoncourt.”