THE INTERNATIONAL PRIZE WINNERS
The following is a press release about the competition.
During the summer, The United Nations will host a unique exhibit, Our World in the Year 2000: The United Nations Millennium Art Exhibition, in the Foyer of the United Nations Headquarters, New York. All UN Ambassadors and exhibiting artists have been invited to attend.
The exhibit comprises over 130 winning and selected paintings from the largest international art competition ever held: The Winsor & Newton Worldwide Millennium Painting Competition. Over 22,000 amateur and professional artists from 51 countries entered paintings to the competition on the theme of My Country in the Year 2000.
Kofi Annan, Secretary-General, United Nations, comments: "The exhibition is an excellent example of how the universal language of art can bring nations together and promote greater understanding between peoples and cultures."
In February 2000, His Royal Highness The Prince of Wales, Chairman of the International Judging Panel, presented awards to the winning artists at St. James’s Palace, London. In his Foreword to the exhibition catalogue he comments: "We can all learn a great deal about our world by looking at it through the independent and perceptive eyes of artists."
The winner of the worldwide competition, Ramón Piaguaje, a Secoya Indian, is a self-taught artist who has only been painting for five years. He lives deep in the Amazon rainforest in Ecuador, South America, and his painting shows a highly detailed view of the rainforest near his home by the Aguarico River.
Ramón Piaguaje comments: "I entered the competition because I wanted to deliver a message to the rest of the world about keeping this lung of the world free from pollution and destruction. The forest is all we have. I hope that when people see my picture, they do not just look at my art, but realise that it is their obligation to help to preserve the Amazon rainforest. My tribe, the Secoyas, have lived in these forests for thousands of years and to see a tree fall is like seeing a loved one die." Ramón Piaguaje is making a special journey to New York to see the exhibit, and hopes to meet Kofi Annan to talk to him about the threat to the rainforest where he lives.
The exhibition has already been shown in London and Stockholm where it attracted large crowds. Steve Pleune, Managing Director of Winsor & Newton, the famous British art materials manufacturer, which organised the competition, comments: "We are delighted with the incredible response to the competition from artists all over the world. Perhaps through them we will have a better understanding of the need to act to make our world a better place for future generations. Visitors to the exhibition can find out what artists feel and think about some of the most pressing concerns facing mankind, such as damage to the environment, the well being of children, poverty and famine. There are also wonderful paintings which celebrate multiculturalism, and imaginative images of what the future may bring us."
The exhibition is accompanied by a fully illustrated, 144 page, colour catalogue, price $25 sold in aid of UNICEF. Carol Bellamy, Executive Director, UNICEF comments: "UNICEF is honoured to be selected as a beneficiary of funds raised from the sale of this catalogue, and from the sale of a painting of the Amazon Rainforest by Mr. Ramón Piaguaje, winner of the Our World competition. The funds raised will go to assist children and women who are among the poorest of the poor."
The 12 international competition winners are:
FIRST PRIZE:
Ramón Piaguaje
Ecuador
Eternal Amazon
oil on canvas
cat. 46
The artist comments: "The painting Eternal Amazon, which I put into the competition, does not show one place. I chose different trees, which I remembered and then painted them all together in the picture to make it look like a real place. When I first started to paint I cried because I was so upset by how all this was threatened. But this was good because I wanted to paint how I felt."
HRH The Prince of Wales with Ramon Piaguaje, looking at his winning painting Eternal Amazon during a private audience at St. James’s Palace
SECOND PRIZE:
Stanislaw Zoladz
Sweden
In The Drizzle
watercolour
cat. 217
The artist describes his painting as showing "a little piece of untouched Swedish nature, which to me symbolizes the positive and successful development of a society [which] can hand over a country with a high standard of living and fantastic, untouched nature to coming generations."
THIRD PRIZE:
Rezvan Sadeghzadeh
Iran
Dialogue
oil on canvas
cat. 104
The painting depicts nine women by a stream in a landscape. The artist describes the painting as being "figurative but with no normal dimension of space," giving it the feeling of a Persian miniature painting: a precious, poetic world of elegance.
And nine runners up:
The artist describes the painting as "metaphorical representation of the destruction of the Australian landscape," and which shows the female form of Mother Earth being "raped" in a landscape.
Robert Holcombe
Australia
Cry in the Wilderness (Rape of the Landscape)
acrylic, crayon, ink, and pencil on watercolour board
cat. 10
The artist depicts a flat, featureless, barren landscape stretching as far as the eye can see, which he describes as showing, "the Camargue earth which cries and cracks beneath the blows of the modern world."
Hubert Westermann
France
Ultime Atome
acrylic on board
cat. 57
A gentle, lyrical depiction of figures in a landscape painted in a deliberately "naïve" style suggestive of traditional folk art.
Soffía Saemundsdóttir
Iceland
Bird Paradise
oil on panel
cat. 89
Rached Bohsali
Lebanon
Eco ... Logic
watercolour
cat. 132
The painting shows a large "trompe d'oeil" watercolour of a rose in a vase in front of a pinned up, wrinkled, newspaper dated 1 January 2000. The artist comments, "The newspaper headlines express the daily facts and events concerning damage to our environment. The blooming flower is a symbol of an optimistic, green future."
The painting concerns the superficiality of the "gadget" society. A bride and bridegroom in traditional dress, pose formally. The picture is painted in muted colours except for the bridegroom’s mobile phone and large gold watch, which give the painting its wry title.
Dima Hajjar
Lebanon
Gadget-Groom
acrylic on canvas
cat. 134
The artist has depicted a naked man embracing a sphere. She comments: "Man has contradicting physical and mental qualities: strong and weak, tender and savage. The sphere is the ‘hidden mystery.’ It's everything Man is looking for. It’s the nucleus of the lost truth.
Rita Adaïmy
Lebanon
The Embrace
oil on canvas
cat. 135
Mary-Rose Hendrikse
South Africa
Fragments of a Rainbow Nation
oil on matchboxes
cat. 198
Commenting on her multi-image composition painted on matchboxes, the artist says: "Faces have been my lifelong preoccupation. The ‘multi-portrait’ became a way of tackling the problematic concept of nationhood."
The artist comments on her self-portrait: "In my picture I have represented the past in the background with a faded picture of a special Korean folk tale, and the present with myself, so expressing my affection for my country and the future."
Chang Jee Hui
South Korea
Reflection
colour pencil and pastel on paper
cat. 205
A depiction of a bleak, putrid landscape of death and decay, symbolic of the impact of Man on the world’s environment, which the artist describes as "supernatural painting which comes from my imagination."
Sudjai Chaiyapan
Thailand
The Way of Life from Imagination in the Year 2000
oil and acrylic on canvas
cat. 228
Media Coverage:
Journalists/Media must submit request for UN access on letterhead to:
UN Media Accreditation & Liaison Unit
Fax: 00 1 212 963 4642
To verify receipt of fax please call:
Tel: 00 1 212 963 5934/7164
Pass must be obtained at 45th & 1st Avenue, UNITAR Building. Two forms of Photo ID will be required.
For further information on the exhibit at the United Nations:
Public Inquiries Unit
United Nations
Tel: 00 1 212 963 4475
Fax: 00 1 212 963 0071
e-mail: inquiries@un.org
Winsor & Newton Worldwide Millennium Painting Competition and on Winsor & Newton:
Lynn Pearl
Winsor & Newton
(ColArt Americas)
Tel: 00 1 732 562 0770
Fax: 001 732 562 0941
e-mail: lpearl@colartusa.com
For information on the artists and reproductions of the paintings:
Imogen Lock
Sheeran Lock
Exhibition Organisers
Tel: 00 44 1 728 621126
Fax: 00 44 1 728 621127
e-mail: imogen@sheeranlock.demon.co.uk
For information on UNICEF, the beneficiary of the funds raised by the exhibition:
Christine Chang
US Fund for UNICEF, New York Metropolitan Chapter
Tel: 00 1 212 824 6290
Fax: 001 212 824 6299
e-mail: cchang@unicefusa.org
Please send any and all comments to
comments@ourworldin2000.com
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