Annual Report (2001)
Wittenborn Award Committee, ARLIS NA

Submitted by Sheila Klos, Chair

Committee members were: Kimball Clark, Dumbarton Oaks Research Library; Marjorie Chenoweth, Maryland Institute College of Art; Gregory Most, National Gallery of Art; Joan Stahl, Smithsonian American Art Museum; and Lynne Woodruff, University of Maryland; and Karen McKenzie as Board Liaison.

The call for submissions was sent by US Mail on October 8, 2001 to 331 publishers.  It was also sent out via ARLIS-L, prompting a few nominations from listserv readers.  Seven mailings were returned as undeliverable; the mailing list was then updated.

104 submissions were received from publishers in the U.S., Mexico, and Canada – several through the kind intervention of Beverly Karno who recognizes the difficulty of getting some publications from Mexican presses.  The committee thanks her for her help.  Seven publications were disqualified for reasons of publication date, place of publication, or scope (several were not art books at all).

In keeping with the Society’s desire to increase the exclusivity and profile of the Wittenborn award, this year only one winner and two honorable mentions were selected.  They are:

Winner: Jacob van Ruisdael: A Complete Catalogue of His Paintings, Drawings and Etchings, by Seymour Slive, published by Yale University Press. 

Honorable mention: Ancient Sichuan: Treasures from a Lost Civilization, edited by Robert Bagley, published by the Seattle Art Museum in association with Princeton University Press.

Honorable mention: Van Gogh and Gauguin: The Studio of the South, by Douglas W. Druick and Peter Kort Zegers, in collaboration with Britt Salvesen, published by Thames & Hudson, The Art Institute of Chicago, and the Van Gogh Museum.

Copy has been submitted to Headquarters for the newly designed certificates that will be presented at the Convocation, and a table will be arranged for the award-winning books in the exhibits area for the St. Louis conference.  The list of winners on the ARLIS-L web site will be updated.  A press release is in preparation now for dissemination by Headquarters at the time of the conference.  The idea of a one-page interview with the winning author, to appear in Art Doc, is being pursued.  A book signing at the conference was eliminated when we learned Professor Slive would not be able to attend.

The budget for FY 2002 was approved in the amount of  $775.00.  The 2002 committee chair will be Nancy Norris, UCLA.