Obama honors Venice artist, UC Irvine professor with medals

A visual artist and a history professor from Southern California were honored at the White House for their contributions to the arts and humanities Thursday.

Venice artist John Baldessari and University of California Irvine professor Vicki Lynn Ruiz were among the 21 people and organizations that received honors from President Barack Obama at this year’s National Medals of Arts and National Humanities Medal ceremony.

“Some of those once obscure and unknown talents are rightly being recognized,” Obama said. “That's what we celebrate here today. Our fellow citizens from all walks of life who share their gifts with all of us who make our lives and our world more beautiful and richer and fuller.”

Obama called Baldessari — whose work combines photography, painting and text — “one of the most influential conceptual artists of our time.”

Here’s a short film from 2011 about the artist:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=eU7V4GyEuXA

The president said Ruiz has “pioneered the history of 20th century Latinas in a distinguished career that began with collecting oral testimony from Mexican immigrants who worked in U.S. canning factories.”

According to the National Endowment for Humanities, she helped produce the first encyclopedia about Latinas’ contributions in the U.S.

Other recipients include Stephen King, Jhumpa Lahiri, Sally Field and Alice Waters. 

Here’s the full list of honorees:

National Medal of Arts

• John Baldessari, Visual Artist (Venice, CA)
• Ping Chong, Theater Director, Choreographer and Video and Installation Artist (New York, NY)
• Miriam Colón, Actress, Theater Founder and Director (New York, NY)
• The Doris Duke Charitable Foundation (New York, NY)
• Sally Field, Actress and Filmmaker (Los Angeles, CA)
• Ann Hamilton, Visual Artist (Columbus, OH)
• Stephen King, Author (Bangor, ME)
• Meredith Monk, Composer, Singer and Performer (New York, NY)
• George Shirley, Tenor (Ann Arbor, MI)
• University Musical Society, Performing Arts Presenter (Ann Arbor, MI)
• Tobias Wolff, Author and Educator (Stanford, CA)

National Humanities Medal

• Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, Historian (Auburndale, MA)
• Annie Dillard, Author (Key West, FL)
• Clemente Course In The Humanities (Annandale-On-Hudson, NY)
• Rebecca Newberger Goldstein, Novelist and Philosopher (Boston, MA)
• Alice Waters, Chef, Author and Advocate (Berkeley, CA)
• Larry McMurtry, Novelist, Essayist and Screenwriter (Archer City, TX)
• Everett L. Fly, Architect (San Antonio, TX)
• Jhumpa Lahiri, Author (New York, NY)
• Fedwa Malti-Douglas, Professor and Scholar (Rhinebeck, NY)
• Vicki Lynn Ruiz, Historian (Irvine, CA)