JSTOR

TERRA FOUNDATION FOR AMERICAN ART INTERNATIONAL ESSAY PRIZE

The Smithsonian American Art Museum is pleased to announce that Sergio Cortesini of the University of Cassino in Italy has been awarded the 2010 Terra Foundation for American Art International Essay Prize. Cortesini was selected for his essay “Unseen Canvases: Italian Painters and Fascist Myths across the American Scene.”

Cortesini is the first winner of the prize, which recognizes excellent scholarship by a scholar in the field of American art history who is based outside the United States. The annual award, supported by the Terra Foundation for American Art, honors essays that advance the understanding of historical American art and demonstrate new findings and original perspectives. Essays written in foreign languages are translated into English for publication. As the winning author, Cortesini receives a $500 award and his essay will be published in the Spring 2011 issue of the museum’s journal American Art.

Cortesini’s essay describes the Italian government’s program to send a series of exhibitions of contemporary art to the United States between 1935 and World War II in an attempt to offset through cultural diplomacy Fascist Italy’s belligerent image in America. In particular, it traces the reception of one exhibition that toured to twelve venues across the country, including the Minnesota State Fair, in 1935-36. The essay was chosen on the recommendation of a four-member international review panel, which evaluated manuscripts submitted for the prize following a call for papers.

For information on submitting papers for the 2011 prize, please see http://www.americanart.si.edu/research/awards/terra/. The deadline for submissions is January 14, 2011.