On Sept. 2, 2026, Franco Belgian painter engraver Karel Vereycken received the following message from Contemporary Art Collectors:

« Dear Karel,

Congratulations once again on being selected as a winner of the Noble Art Award | For Outstanding Contribution To Artistic Heritage.

We are pleased to share with you the link to your official Noble Art Award Winner’s Profile:

https://www.contemporary-art-collectors.com/winners/karel-vereycken« 

The online profiles of the winners will be edited as a book to be published later this year under the title « Noble Art Award for Outstanding Contribution to Artistic Heritage ».

Below, the raison d’être and the significance of the reward as explained on the website of Contemporary Art Collectors:

The NOBLE ART AWARD, FOR OUTSTANDING CONTRIBUTION TO ARTISTIC HERITAGE, presented by Contemporary Art Collectors, recognizes artists whose sustained creative practice represents a significant contribution to contemporary art and to the broader continuum of artistic heritage.

The Award is conceived around an understanding of artistic heritage as a living and continuously developing field. Heritage does not belong exclusively to the historical past; it is also formed through the artistic practices, ideas, visual languages, and cultural positions that emerge in the present. Within this perspective, contemporary artistic practice participates in an ongoing historical process, contributing to the ways in which art is understood, experienced, and transmitted across generations.

The NOBLE ART AWARD acknowledges artists whose work demonstrates artistic quality, dedication, innovation, and a sustained commitment to their practice. It recognizes the importance of an artistic journey developed over time and the capacity of an artist’s work to contribute meaningfully to the wider field of art.

Rather than approaching artistic achievement solely through immediate visibility or prevailing tendencies, the Award places emphasis on the enduring qualities of artistic practice. Its central consideration is the significance of the artist’s contribution: the seriousness with which a practice has been developed, the consistency of its artistic language, the level of commitment evident throughout the artist’s trajectory, and its contribution to the continuing development of visual culture.

Recognition of Artistic Contribution

The selection of a recipient represents recognition of the artist’s talent, dedication, innovation, and contribution to the Art World. It acknowledges an artistic practice that has developed with purpose and consistency and whose work has achieved significance within a broader cultural context.

The Award considers artistic achievement not simply as the production of individual works, but as the development of an artistic trajectory. Within such a trajectory, individual works become part of a larger practice—one shaped by the artist’s evolving ideas, methods, decisions, and commitment to artistic production.

In this sense, the NOBLE ART AWARD recognizes both achievement and continuity. It acknowledges what an artist has established through their practice while situating that contribution within a larger cultural and historical framework.

Recognition through the Award also brings increased attention to the recipient’s practice, contributing to its visibility within the international art context. This visibility is understood as part of a broader process of cultural recognition: the identification of artistic practices considered worthy of sustained attention and inclusion within contemporary artistic discourse.

A Curatorial Process

The NOBLE ART AWARD is not open for application. Participation is by invitation only, with artists identified through a global curatorial selection process.

This structure distinguishes the Award from open-call competitions and application-based prizes. Artists do not nominate themselves or submit an application for consideration. Instead, the selection process is initiated curatorially, through the identification of artistic practices considered relevant to the principles and purpose of the Award.

The curatorial process places emphasis on artistic quality, sustained practice, dedication, innovation, and contribution to the field of art. Central to this approach is a preference for enduring artistic value over temporary trends. The Award therefore seeks to consider artistic practice within a longer cultural perspective rather than through the immediate conditions of fashion or visibility.

Such an approach reflects the Award’s relationship to the idea of heritage itself. If artistic heritage is understood as something that develops across time, the evaluation of contemporary practice necessarily requires attention to qualities that may extend beyond the present moment.

Beyond the Immediate Present

The distinction between the contemporary and the historical is never absolute. Works created today enter an existing cultural dialogue while simultaneously contributing to the material from which future histories of art will be constructed. 

The NOBLE ART AWARD is situated within this intersection between present artistic practice and future cultural memory. Its focus on outstanding contribution to artistic heritage reflects an understanding that the history of art remains open: it is continually expanded by artists whose work becomes part of the cultural experience of their time.

For this reason, the Award considers artistic practice not only in relation to contemporary recognition but also in relation to continuity. The emphasis on timeless mastery articulated by the Award refers to this longer view—an attention to artistic qualities that are not dependent solely upon passing tendencies, but that emerge through commitment, development, and sustained artistic work.

The Award consequently proposes a form of recognition grounded in duration. It acknowledges that artistic significance is rarely contained within a single moment and that an artist’s contribution is often revealed through the cumulative development of a practice.

The Artist Within the Living History of Art

Art history is not only the account of what has already been established. It continues to be formed through the work of practicing artists and through the ways their contributions are recognized, interpreted, documented, and carried forward. Contemporary artists therefore occupy a particular position: they work within the present while simultaneously producing part of the cultural material through which that present may eventually be remembered.

The Award’s reference to the living history of art expresses this relationship between artistic practice, recognition, and cultural continuity. To recognize an artist’s contribution to artistic heritage is to acknowledge that heritage itself remains unfinished.

Within this framework, receiving the NOBLE ART AWARD, FOR OUTSTANDING CONTRIBUTION TO ARTISTIC HERITAGE marks a significant moment in an artist’s professional trajectory. It recognizes the quality and importance of the artist’s work, the dedication demonstrated throughout their artistic journey, and their contribution to the enrichment of the Art World.

The NOBLE ART AWARD is therefore conceived not simply as a prize, but as a form of curatorial recognition: an acknowledgment of artistic practice as part of an evolving cultural history and of the artist’s contribution to the continuing formation of artistic heritage.