On 29 January 1976, the City Councillors Meeting decided upon submission by the Department of Culture and Leisure on the statutes for awarding the Max-Beckmann-Prize of the City of Frankfurt am Main. The prize is endowed with € 50,000. It is awarded every three years for the first time in 1978. The award of the Max Beckmann-Prize serves to further and acknowledge outstanding performances in the fields of painting, graphic art, sculpture and architecture.
Max Beckmann, who as artist and teacher worked at the Städel Art College from 1925 until 1933, is one the outstanding artists of the first half of the 20. century. With visionary mastery he injected the fears and threats of his epoch into his paintings and graphics. Max Beckmann is the leading representative of German expressionism. Many of his major works stem from his time in Frankfurt.
Prizewinners
1978 Richard Oelze (Artist)
1981 Arnulf Rainer (Artist)
1984 Willem de Kooning (Artist)
1987 Erwin Heerich/Walter Pichler (Architect/Graphic Artist)
1990 Bruse Nauman (Artist)
1993 Ilya Kabakov (Artist)
1996 Jacques Herzog/Pierre de Meuron (Architects)
2000 Harald Szeemann (Exhibition manager)
2004 Maria Lassnig (Artist)
2007 Richard Hamilton (Artist)
2010 Barbara Klemm (Artist)
2013 Otto Piene (Artist)
2016 Agnès Varda
2019 Cindy Sherman (Artist)
2022 VALIE EXPORT (Artist)