Sikkens Prize 2022

Sikkens Prize 2022 for Piet Oudolf

The Sikkens Foundation is an independent cultural institution which aims to stimulate social, cultural and scientific developments in which color plays a key role. To this end, the Mondrian Lecture and Sikkens Prize are meant as encouragements. The first Sikkens Prize was awarded to Gerrit Rietveld in 1959. Later prize winners include David Chipperfield, Johannes Itten, Seamus Heaney, Hella Jongerius, Donald Judd, Le Corbusier, Benno Premsela, and Bridget Riley.

Piet Oudolf received the Sikkens Prize 2022 for his contribution to the ‘experience of color’ in parks and gardens around the world. His garden designs make visible to everyone how colors emerge through light, how it brings them to life. Oudolf also shows that faded plants, shades of brown and other earth tones are at least as interesting as deep, bright colors.

The assignment was to design a publication that serves as a framework for Piet Oudolf laudatio. The idea was to show surfaces in shades of green and brown only. These areas are laser perforated, creating layered color combinations and peek throughs. As you browse, the number of holes increases, like the decaying of a leaf. The pages, which are partly folded at the top, can be lifted, creating a light and shadow effect over the color area. The colors move and shift, like the way a garden presents itself throughout a day, a season, a year. The passage of time, light and its influence on color is an important element in Oudolf's work.