PARIS.- The Daniel & Florence Guerlain Contemporary Art Foundation's Drawing Prize has been awarded in Paris on the 31st of March, 2011 to Marcel van Eeden, a Dutch artist born in 1965 in The Hague. He lives and works in The Hague, Zurich and Berlin.

The members of the 2011 Drawing Prize jury were Pierre Bourgie (Canada), Michel Delfosse (Belgium), Morris Orden (USA), Ulrich Reininghaus (Germany), Hervé Aaron (France), Jean-Jacques de Flers (France), Bernard Herbo (France) and Daniel and Florence Guerlain.

This prize is reserved for both French and foreign artists, whether they live in France or not, but who sustain a privileged cultural link with France (through exhibitions, studies…) and for whom drawing constitutes a significant part of their work, whatever their main mode of expression (painting, sculpture, photography, etc.).

Awarded for the first time in 2007 and biennial until 2009, the Prize honours artists who make any unique work on paper or cardboard, using graphic means: crayon, charcoal, red chalk, ink, wash tint, gouache, watercolour, pastels, felt… including collages and wall drawings but excluding computer and mechanical processes.

The award ceremony took place during the Salon du Dessin at the Palais de la Bourse, Paris. The winner received an endowment of 15.000 EUR and the two other selected artists, Vidya Gastaldon and Amelie von Wulffen received 2.500 euros each. A work by the winner is offered by the Foundation to the Graphic Arts Department of the National Museum of Modern Art – Centre Pompidou.

The candidates are selected by a committee composed of the two founders Daniel and Florence Guerlain, and of four members chosen for their competence and interest in contemporary art. Following a working meeting with the artists, visits to studios and analysis, the committee selects three artists whose work is presented to an international jury different each year.

The 2011 winner, Marcel van Eeden, studied at Koninklijke in The Hague. He is represented in Zurich by the Bob von Orsouw gallery and in Munich by the Zink gallery. In 2004, he exhibited at the Netherlands Institute in Paris.

"Marcel van Eeden's work demonstrates the very precise objective of constructing, in the most exact manner possible, a world in which he does not exist. Every day, he draws an environment which might seem to be real if time had stopped before 1965. Because this date which is also his year of birth, was the strict limit for collecting the images inspiring his works.

His material is taken from works in art history, archives, atlases or illustrated magazines. His choice is not concerned about seduction. For instance, he selects the dreary urban architecture from the period of reconstruction after the war, a view of empty restaurants, departing trains and crime scenes but also images of women and food. Some of them are like contemporary vanities, perhaps due to his Dutch tradition! In small formats, the drawings appear even more dense, abundant and full. These scenes, extracted from their context, recall comic strips and crime novels from which they also borrow the same efficient style".
-MARIE MAERTENS

A selection of works by Marcel van Eeden, Vidya Gastaldon and Amelie von Wulffen is exhibited at the Salon du Dessin until the 4th of April.