Aktivitäten

Alberto Giacometti, Figurine dans une boîte entre deux boîtes qui sont des maisons, 1950, Kunst Museum Winterthur, Depositum der Alberto Giacometti–Stiftung. Foto: Philipp Hitz, SIK-ISEA, Zürich

Förderpreis Kunstwissenschaft 2026

Dank der grosszügigen Unterstützung durch die Alfred Richterich Stiftung kann die Vereinigung der Kunsthistorikerinnen und Kunsthistoriker in der Schweiz (VKKS) seit 2005 den kunsthistorischen Nachwuchs mit jährlich zwei Förderpreisen à CHF 4'000.- und CHF 6'000.- auszeichnen.

Die Preise werden von einer Jury in den Kategorien «Junior» und «Senior» für herausragende Papers und Aufsätze zu einem kunstwissenschaftlichen Thema der mittelalterlichen bis zeitgenössischen Kunst vergeben. Zweckbestimmung des Preises ist die Förderung junger Wissenschaftler*innen in der Schweiz. Die Jury beurteilt die Texte in Unkenntnis der Autorschaft.

Jury

Dr. Chonja Lee, chargée d'enseignement et postdoctorante, Institut d'histoire de l'art et de muséologie, Université de Neuchâtel / membre du comité de l'ASHHA / présidente du jury; Prof. Frédéric Elsig, professeur ordinaire de la période médiévale, Unité d'histoire de l'art, Université de Genève; Dr. Simona Martinoli, direttrice della Fondazione Marguerite Arp a Locarno; Dr. Fabiana Senkpiel, Kunstwissenschaftlerin und Senior Researcher, Institut Praktiken und Theorien der Künste, Hochschule der Künste Bern; Dr. David Zagoury, chercheur postdoc FNS, Département d'histoire de l'art et d'archéologie, Université de Fribourg / spécialiste de l'époque moderne

Gewinner*innen

Junior: Leo Kaut, Universität Basel, "The Catalogue as Stand-Alone Exhibition. How Seth Siegelaub Conceives of a New Exhibiting Medium for Conceptual Art"

Senior: Dahi Jung, Universität Zürich, "Tactile Knowledge: Crafting Nature with Pith Paper in Nineteenth-Century Women's Albums in Britain"

Preisverleihung

13. November 2026, Neuchâtel

im Rahmen von

International Workshop for PhD Students and Early Career Researchers
"Love’s Matter - The Material Culture and Art of Affection, c. 1700-1900"

12th & 13th November 2026, University of Neuchâtel & Maison Borel
9th edition of the Entretiens de la Fondation Maison Borel

Laudationes

Leo Kaut is awarded the Advancement Prize in Art History in the Junior category for his excellent article examining Seth Siegelaub's radical conception of the catalogue as an exhibition space in its own right, developed in close connection with the philosophy of Conceptual Art and its emphasis on ideas rather than the material art object. By tracing this shift, the author sheds light on changing relationships between exhibition formats and the art market in the 1960s. The jury particularly appreciated the choice of subject and the clear, consistently developed line of argument. Kaut compellingly uncovers a productive contradiction at the heart of Siegelaub's project: the Xerox Book (1968), conceived as an alternative to the gallery and its market structures ultimately becomes itself absorbed into the market as a priced rarity. The jury was impressed by the paper's strong argument, its well-structured reasoning, and its engaging and evocative writing. By taking seriously both the radical potential and the limitations of the catalogue as an exhibition medium, Kaut offers a thoughtful and convincing contribution to the understanding of Conceptual and Minimal Art and its institutional and economic contexts.

Dahi Jung is awarded the Advancement Prize in Art History in the Senior category for her highly accomplished study of the creative use of Chinese pith paper in cut-paper collages and albums by genteel women in nineteenth-century Britain. By looking at works resembling botanical specimens by Ellen W. and Sophia Jenkins the author shifts attention from the familiar role of Chinese pith paper as a support for Canton export painting to its use within Victorian gendered culture. The jury was particularly impressed by the originality of the subject and the clarity and thoughtful progression of the argument. The paper follows a material-aesthetics approach, while bringing artistic amateur practice into dialogue with natural history, commerce, and transcultural exchange. The careful analysis of the botanical collages stands out and explains how the translucent and structured plant-based pith paper used namely for petal and insect wings enabled new forms of artistic and tactile engagement with nature. Particularly convincing is the way Jung reconsiders women's domestic practices not as marginal or merely decorative activities, but as artistic and meaningful forms of informal knowledge production. By connecting a seemingly modest material with a broader global art history, Jung offers a fresh and compelling perspective on nineteenth-century visual culture. The paper is both rigorously researched and compellingly written.

Reglement

Februar 2026

Förderpreis Kunstwissenschaft

seit 2005

2025

Janina Ammon, Davide Ferri

Junior: Janina Ammon, Universität Bern, «‹...püechlen von leinbet, gesang darein genäet...›. Eine Untersuchung der politischen Bedeutung des textilen Mediums im Kontext der gestickten Stimmhefte in der Ambraser Kunst- und Wunderkammer»

Senior: Davide Ferri, Universität Bern, Walter Benjamin Kolleg / GSAH, "Imagining the Archipelago: Chios, the Giustiniani, and the Colonial Temporalities of Landscape, 1566-1650"