Photo by chriggy1, courtesy flickr

Jack L. Wolgin, who commissioned Claes Oldenburg's iconic "Clothespin" sculpture near Philadelphia's City Hall, has endowed an arts prize that will be the world's largest awarded to an individual artist.

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The annual $150,000 juried award, to be known as the Wolgin International Prize in the Fine Arts, will be administered by Temple University's Tyler School of Art, which is soon to relocate from the suburbs to a new $75 million facility on Temple's North Philadelphia campus. The prize will go to an artist who creates work that "transcends traditional boundaries and exemplifies the highest level of excellence in painting, sculpture, printmaking, photography, ceramics, metals, glass, or fibers."

Funded by a $3.7 million gift from Wolgin, the prize will far surpass similar awards in monetary terms. The winner will also receive an exhibition at Tyler.

"This is a spectacular announcement and certainly represents a very significant prize," said Alice Beamesderfer, interim head of curatorial affairs at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. "It will serve to further enhance Philadelphia's stature as a vital center in the art world, and as a place that recognizes the value of the artist in society."

The first contest is to take place in fall 2009, with an international panel naming artists eligible to compete.