British playwright wins Japan's Praemium Imperiale

(AFP) – Sep 24, 2009

TOKYO — The Japan Art Association on Thursday named British playwright Tom Stoppard as a recipient of the Praemium Imperiale, one of the richest awards in the arts world.

Two more Britons also won the prize -- Iraqi-born architect Zaha Hadid and sculptor Richard Long -- as did Japanese photographer Hiroshi Sugimoto and Austrian pianist Alfred Brendel.

Each recipient of the annual award, which is supported by Japan's imperial family, will receive 15 million yen (158,000 dollars), making it one of the most lucrative prizes in art.

Stoppard, born in what is now the Czech Republic, wrote the play "Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead" and the screenplays for "Empire of the Sun" and "Shakespeare in Love," for which he won an Oscar.

Hadid, 58, the first female architect to win her profession's Pritzker Prize, is known for her avant-garde designs, including Germany's BMW Central Building and an ongoing work, the London Aquatics Centre for the 2012 Olympics.

Long, 64, has explored the theme of man and nature, using natural materials he finds on long walks all over the world. A winner of Britain's Turner Prize, he staged the solo exhibition "Heaven and Earth" at London's Tate gallery this year.

Sugimoto, 61, is known for his large-format photography, creating dreamlike images often said to have a quality that transcends time and space. Irish rock band U2 used one of them for a CD jacket this year.

Czech-born Brendel, who is 78 and recently retired, is the first pianist to record Beethoven's entire piano works and also well-known for his wide repertoire including Haydn, Schubert and Mozart.

He is largely self-taught and also famed for his poetry.

The awards ceremony in Tokyo on October 22 will be led by Prince Hitachi, brother of Emperor Akihito and honorary patron of the association.

Previous recipients of the Praemium Imperiale include painters Jasper Johns and Willem de Kooning, architects Frank Gehry and I.M. Pei, filmmakers Federico Fellini and Akira Kurosawa, playwright Arthur Miller and sitarist Ravi Shankar.

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