Ralph Lemon Wins $100,000 Bucksbaum Award at Whitney Biennial

Ralph Lemon, an artist and choreographer, has been awarded the $100,000 Bucksbaum Award, given to an exhibitor at the Whitney Biennial. Lemon expressed conflict about showing his paintings, which he described as a private practice. Curators persuaded him to exhibit his grid-like compositions with geometric abstraction, most of which had never been seen. The award is named after Melva Bucksbaum, who launched it in 2000 and died in 2015. Previous recipients include Paul Pfeiffer, Mark Bradford, and Pope.L. Lemon also received a MacArthur 'Genius' grant in 2020, worth $625,000.