The American Academy in Rome held its annual McKim Medal Gala at the Villa Aurelia in Rome on May 26, 2011, in honor of the Italian artist Luigi Ontani, whom the Academy named the seventh McKim Medal laureate. The reception and dinner was attended by over 250 guests, who came together to celebrate Ontani’s artistic achievements during his influential forty-five-year career in the art world. Academy Trustee Robert Storr presented the Medal to Ontani. During his acceptance speech, Ontani poignantly recounted his foray into the art world as well as his first trip to the United States, a formative journey that had a profound impact on his career.
Considered one of the most influential and innovative Italian artists working today, Ontani is best known for combining Western and Eastern iconographical traditions while referencing historical, allegorical and mythological themes in his artwork. On the scene since the late 1960s, Ontani’s tableaux vivants, works in which he is usually the protagonist, have significantly influenced performance artists working in Europe and the United States today. According to Storr, “With alternately sly and shameless wit, elegant sleight of hand, and a genuine appreciation of aesthetic mystery Ontani is one of the great Dandies of his age, a high style subversive whose influence has yet to be fully felt.”
This year’s McKim Gala was chaired by Valentina Moncada di Paternò, together with Founding Chair and Academy Trustee, Verdella Caracciolo de Benedictis and Honorary Chair, Mrs. David Thorne. The funds raised allow Italian artists to join the Academy community each year, and support an exchange program for scholars in the humanities that links the Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa with the American Academy in Rome.
The McKim Medal was established by the Trustees of the American Academy in Rome in 2005 as an annual prize that honors an individual whose work internationally—most particularly in Italy and the United States—has contributed significantly to the arts and humanities. Named for Charles Follen McKim (1847–1909), noted architect who established the Academy in 1894, the medal recognizes an individual whose work and life exemplify creative and intellectual exchange across the arts, scholarship, language, and culture. Previous McKim Medal laureates include Umberto Eco, Ennio Morricone, Renzo Piano, Miuccia Prada, Cy Twombly, and Franco Zeffirelli. The McKim medal was designed by Cy Twombly, an Academy Trustee. This year’s medal was crafted by the Roman goldsmith Marcello Rocchi and was a gift of Valentina Moncada di Paternò.