Monday, May 2, 2022
6:00 PM EDT
Virtual Event, Register for event here
AICA-USA is pleased to announce art critic and novelist Emmanuel Iduma as the inaugural recipient of its Irving Sandler Award for New Voices in Art Criticism. On Monday, May 2nd at 6PM EDT, he will present a virtual talk, "From Glimpse to Record: Notes on Narrative as Criticism," in conjunction with this award.
“For as long as I have written about art, I have treated criticism as a porous container to account for my interest in narrative forms (fiction, storytelling, and history). In this lecture, I hope to expand on my thinking in that regard: to test the idea that distinctions in form can eschew hierarchy, to consider the overlaps between art criticism and literary nonfiction, and to present several (discreet and oblique) notes on method—the method I hope to adopt as I begin work, sooner or later, on a narrative essay on African photography. Ultimately, to meditate on the correspondences between narrator and interlocutor.”
Mr. Iduma’s prize is in memory of Irving Sandler, esteemed art critic and valued board member and friend, who tirelessly illuminated the role of art, artists and art criticism in the 20th and 21st centuries. The award includes a gift of $2,500.
Emmanuel Iduma was born and raised in Nigeria, where he trained as a lawyer. His recent nonfiction work, A Stranger’s Pose (2018), was longlisted for the 2019 Ondaatje Prize. He has contributed nonfiction and criticism to Granta, the New York Review of Books, Aperture, n+1, Artforum, Best American Travel Writing 2020, Art in America, among other places. His art writing has been honored with the Andy Warhol Foundation Arts Writers grant, the inaugural Irving Sandler Award for New Voices in Art Criticism from AICA-USA, and the C/O Berlin Talent Prize for Theory. In 2020, he was listed in Apollo International Art Magazine’s 40 under 40 Africa for the broad social impact of his work. For his nonfiction, he was awarded a Windham-Campbell Prize for Literature in 2022.
Iduma received an MFA in Art Criticism and Writing from the School of Visual Arts, New York, and taught in three of its graduate programs. He currently edits Tender Photo, a newsletter publication featuring the work of early to mid-career African photographers. I Am Still With You, his memoir on the aftermath of the Nigerian civil war, was awarded a Silvers Grant for Work in Progress, and is forthcoming from Algonquin (US), and William Collins (UK) in March 2023.
This event is free and open to the public.
AICA supports art writers around the world through public programs and membership that includes free access to museums across the globe. Since its formation in 1950, AICA has been committed to elevating the values of art criticism as a discipline, and acting on behalf of the physical and moral defense of works of art.
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AICA supports arts writers around the world through public programs and membership that offers free access to museums across the globe. AICA-USA represents the largest national section of AICA International with over 450 distinguished critics, curators, scholars, and art historians working throughout the United States. As part of the international organization, we benefit from a global reach in presence. AICA-USA is intent on international communication, elevating the values of art criticism as a discipline, and acting on behalf of the physical and moral defense of works of art.
AICA's membership card is recognized for entrance to museums around the world. Members are invited to attend the annual AICA International Congress, hosted each year by a different member nation, and the AICA-USA annual meeting.
Every fall, in cooperation with the New School's Vera List Center for Art and Politics, AICA-USA presents a Distinguished Critic Lecture.
Organized in collaboration with CUE Art Foundation, this program matches emerging critics with experienced AICA-USA members who guide them through the process of writing a catalogue essay.
A partnership between The Andy Warhol Foundation Arts Writers Grant and AICA-USA that gives art writers the opportunity to strengthen their work through one-on-one consultations with leading art critics.