Robert Wilson has won Japan’s 2023 Praemium Imperiale Awards.

The Praemium Imperiale is a global arts prize awarded annually by the Japan Art Association. It was inaugurated in 1988 and has become a mark of the arts. It awards candidates in five fields: Painting, Sculpture, Architecture, Music and Theatre/Film.

Wilson has won theater/film award alongside painter Vija Celmins, sculpturist Olafur Eliasson, architect Diébédo Francis Kéré, and musician Wynton Marsalis.

Wilson is one of the most acclaimed directors of his generation who has created some of the most important and memorable works in contemporary theater. His career was cemented when he co-created “Einstein on the Beach” with Philip Glass in 1976. He has since directed at such theaters as the Paris Opera, the Metropolitan Opera, Teatro alla Scala, and the Bolshoi Theatre among others.