Royal Award for Modern Painting for three painters 

​

Raquel van Haver, Sam Hersbach, and Neo Matloga are the winners of the Royal Prize for Free Painting 2018, an incentive prize of 9,000 euros for each.

​

 

They got it from King Willem-Alexander on Friday afternoon in Amsterdam. The prize was instituted by King Willem III in 1871 and continues its continuation. Dutch visual artists up to the age of 35 can try to win the prize.

Painting had a leading role in the visual arts for centuries. That came to a head in the 1980s. Expressions such as video, photography and installation art became popular. This change had consequences for the number of registrations. In 1986 802 artists took part, the number of registrations has been growing for years between 200 and 300. This year there are 230.

​

 

Prize money of 9000 euros

According to the jury chairperson Paula van den Bosch, there is also good news. Until 1980, less than 10 percent of the winners were women, between 1980 and 2018. In recent years, the number has fluctuated slightly below 50 percent.

​

 

New this year is that not four but three are romantic. The prize money has developed from 6500 to 9000 per winner and the number of nominees is from 20 to 12.

The jury says about this year's laureates: "All three are storytellers with an eye for detail, who construct images with flair and guts, which invite the public to look carefully."

​

 

Source: Het Parool

​