Caspar David Friedrich Prize 2026

Organization

The Caspar David Friedrich Society was founded in 1998 within the University- and Hansetown of Greifswald, which is the place of birth of one of the most famous painters of early Romanticism: Caspar David Friedrich (1774-1840). The main goal of the non-profit-organization is to cherish the life, persona and work of Caspar David Friedrich and to keep it alive for future generations. To achieve this, the Caspar David Friedrich Society opened the Caspar David Friedrich Centre in 2004 – a museum for the artist at the very place of his birth and on the grounds of his family home. Since 2001 the Caspar David Friedrich Society has awarded the annual Caspar David Friedrich Prize. It is awarded for those works of art that examine current questions in the relationship between mankind, nature and art and that take Caspar David Friedrich’s work as their point of reference.

Conditions of Entry

Entries will be accepted made by art students of the following institutions: the University of Greifswald, the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts in Copenhagen and the Dresden Academy of Fine Arts, as the towns/cities of Greifswald, Copenhagen and Dresden are the places where Caspar David Friedrich lived, studied and worked. The Prize is dedicated to all kinds of artwork in the field of the visual arts. Submissions may include pictures of artwork of every kind and in every medium.

• Group submissions/ Collabs/ Collective works will not be considered. The Applicant has to be an individual person.

• Artworks that have been submitted in prior years to the Caspar David Friedrich Prize Committee will not be considered either.

• The submitted artworks may not be older than two years.

The submitted artworks shall display a clear reference to the artwork of Caspar David Friedrich in the way that they shall examine current issues/questions of /within the relationship between mankind, nature and art. Otherwise the submissions will not be considered within the contest.

Application Documents 

Additional analogue submissions of the same artworks are possible. If you chose to submit entries via postal service, please submit them in the form of a portfolio (not larger than 30 cm by 40 cm / DIN A3) or in the form of a printable PDF (not more than 10 MB) on a storage media, such as a USB memory stick. If possible, please compress the size of the digitally submitted entries (e.g. by sending in a zip-folder). Please do not send in original artworks!

One PDF file - provided with first and last name, containing:   

• a short CV (in English)
• Portfolio with a minimum of 15, a maximum of 25 submitted works   
• the submitted works must not be older than two years   
• sculptural works: please do not submit originals, but images of your sculptures/reliefs/sculptures   
• Video files are to be integrated into the portfolio as a link and, if necessary, displayed by a video still   
• short explanation of your own work in relation to the work of Caspar David Friedrich (max. one page, in English and/or German)   
• a detailed list of the submitted works (title, year, original dimensions, techniques, material)

Submissions which do not meet the formal requirements of the application document will be excluded from the application process.

Date of Submission

Entries must be postmarked no later than September 15th 2025. Due to organizational reasons we ask that application documents are not submitted before June 16th 2025, regardless of their form. Contact details:

E-Mail: Josephine Steinfurth, e-mail: preis@caspar-david-friedrich-gesellschaft.de

Address for postal submissions:

Price

The Prize is funded by the Caspar David Friedrich Society and carries a value of €2,500. The award-winner’s artwork will also be displayed in a solo exhibition at the Caspar David Friedrich Centre in Greifswald, and a limited edition of postcards featuring two of his or her motifs will be published. The solo exhibition will take place in four rooms of the first floor of the Caspar David Friedrich Centre. Due to the capacity of the space the Caspar David Friedrich Society may ask for further artworks by the winner than those submitted to the contest in order to create a good exhibition. The winner’s solo exhibition will take place from October 2026 to December 2026.

Transportation Insurance

The award winner is responsible to cover the costs for transportation to and from the Caspar David Friedrich Centre in order to realise the solo exhibition. A grant to help with such costs may be awarded but can not be promised in addition to the Prize itself. The artworks will have insurance during the transportation to and from the exhibition at the Caspar David Friedrich Centre in Greifswald and also during the duration of the exhibition. Storage can not be provided any longer than one week before and three weeks after the exhibition.

Jury

The jury is announced by the board of the Caspar David Friedrich Society. It consists particularly but not exclusively of members of the Caspar David Friedrich Society and professors of the formerly named art institutions. Chair of the jury is Ms Josephine Steinfurth. The jury’s decision is final. Any recourse to courts of law is excluded. By announcing the appointment of the Caspar David Friedrich Prize 2026 the organization acquires the right to require the winner’s artworks due to exhibition causes for a minimum duration of the exhibition duration plus one week in advance and max. three weeks after the exhibition ended. Storage of art works can not be guaranteed for longer periods of time. Additional to that the Caspar David Friedrich Society acquires the right to publish pictures of the award winning artworks free of charges prior to the exhibition, during the exhibition and at any given time after the exhibition also but not exclusively for advertising purposes. This applies to all media including print and electronic/online media.