John Fagg Awarded 2014 Terra Foundation for American Art International Essay Prize

The Smithsonian American Art Museum has awarded John Fagg the 2014 Terra Foundation for American Art International Essay Prize. In his prize-winning essay, “Bedpans and Gibson Girls: Clutter and Matter in John Sloan’s Graphic Art,” Fagg suggests that the early 20th-century realist artist’s graphic work is a complex critique of commercial illustration and operates as a form of realist satire. The essay will be published in the 2015 volume of American Art (vol. 29), the museum’s peer-reviewed journal for new scholarship.

Fagg is the fifth winner of the prize, which recognizes excellence in research and writing by a scholar in the field of American art history based outside of the United States. The annual award, established in 2009, supports essays that advance the understanding of historical American art and demonstrate new findings and original perspectives.

Read the full Smithsonian American Art Museum press release.

Terra Foundation for American Art

Established in 1978, the Terra Foundation for American Art is dedicated to fostering the exploration, understanding, and enjoyment of the visual arts of the United States. With financial resources of more than $350 million, an exceptional collection of American art from the colonial era to 1945, and an expansive grant program, it is one of the leading foundations focused on American art, and devotes approximately $12 million annually in support of American art exhibitions, projects, and research worldwide.