Overview
- The Praemium Erasmianum Foundation, which announced the honor Monday, named British artist-filmmaker Steve McQueen the 2026 laureate.
- The prize includes €150,000, about $172,000, plus traditional adornments that this year take the form of a folded booklet printed in Erasmus’s script.
- The foundation said McQueen’s work embodies the theme “Ecce Homo, Behold the Human Being,” pointing to a practice that asks viewers to look without prejudice at how people live and remember.
- The prize will be presented in the autumn of 2026 in the Netherlands, with the Dutch king serving as the foundation’s regent.
- The Erasmus Prize honors exceptional contributions across the humanities, social sciences, or the arts, a breadth reflected in past winners that range from writers to architects, while McQueen’s own career spans films like 12 Years a Slave and Occupied City and recent large-scale installations.