The Smithsonian American Art Museum has awarded Edyta Frelik the 2013 Terra Foundation for American Art International Essay Prize. Frelik’s winning essay, “Ad Reinhart: Painter as Writer,” offers a compelling account of the conceptual and structural linkages between Reinhardt’s extensive writings and the artist’s painting practice. Her text will be published in the fall 2014 issue of the museum’s scholarly journal American Art (vol. 28, no. 3).Frelik is the fourth winner of the prize, which recognizes excellent 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.

“I am inspired by the response the museum has received to the Terra International Essay Prize,” said Elizabeth Broun, The Margaret and Terry Stent Director of the Smithsonian American Art Museum. “The diversity of the submissions indicates the richness of American art scholarship being conducted overseas.”

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 $250 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.