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Alumni Award of Honor
Celebrating our leaders
The Alumni Award of Honor is the highest honor awarded by the College of Charleston Alumni Association. It is presented to those individuals who have made outstanding contributions to the Association and/or to the College. Both alumni and friends of the College are eligible for this award.
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2026 Alumni Award of Honor
Brian Rutenberg ’87
Widely considered to be one of the finest American painters of his generation, Brian Rutenberg has spent 40 years honing a distinctive method of compressing the rich color and form of his native coastal South Carolina into complex landscape paintings that imbue material reality with a deep sense of place.
Brian received his BFA in 1987 from the College of Charleston and his MFA in 1989 from the School of Visual Arts, New York. He is a Fulbright Scholar, a New York Foundation for the Arts Fellow, a Basil Alkazzi USA Award recipient, an Irish Museum of Modern Art visiting artist program participant, and has had over two hundred and fifty exhibitions throughout North America.
Rutenberg’s paintings are included in such museum collections as Yale University Art Gallery, The Butler Institute of American Art, Bronx Museum of Art, Peabody Essex Museum of Art, Greenville County Museum of Art, Provincetown Art Association and Museum, South Carolina State Museum, and many others. His popular YouTube videos “Brian Rutenberg Studio Visits” are viewed daily by people all over the world.
In 2008, Radius Books published a full color monograph written by acclaimed art historian Martica Sawin. Brian’s next book, Clear Seeing Place, was released in October 2016 and was an Amazon #1 bestseller. His most recent monograph, A Little Long Time, published by Forum Gallery in 2019 is also an Amazon bestseller. Brian received an Honorary Doctorate Degree from the College of Charleston where he delivered the 2018 commencement address.
Brian lives and works in New York City with his wife Kathryn. Both of their children, Olivia and Christian, are graduates of the college, classes of 2024 and 2026 respectively.
Brian Rutenberg’s archive of papers are permanently held at the South Carolina State Library in Columbia, SC.
Brian currently has a solo exhibition on view at Forum Gallery in New York City followed by an exhibition at Jerald Melberg Gallery, Charlotte which opens Friday, March 12, 2027.
Alumni Award of Honor Past Recipients
Daniel Ravenel ’72
Charles J. Baker III ’80
George W. Barnette III ’58
Michelle Baxley and Johnnie Baxley ’92
Norman A. Chamberlain ’09 *
Louis E. Condon ’50 *
Sylvester D. Craig ’05 *
Alexander C. Dick ’15 *
Charlotte Buist Dickson ’37 *
Daniel S. Dukes IV ’76
Elmina L. Eason ’28 *
J. Harold Easterby ’20 *
James B. Edwards ’50 *
Margaret Ehrhardt ’66
Yvonne duFort Evans ’58
Harry W. Freeman ’43 *
Alexander L. Geisenheimer ’03 *
Otto B. German ’73
Kenneth S. (Gus) Gustafson, Sr. ’75
Sylvia Craver Harvey ’58
Robert Heffron, Sr. ’39 *
William D. Hilton ’51
Gedney M. Howe, Jr. ’35 *
F. Mitchell Johnson ’37 *
Jean Wayland Johnson & Tapley O. Johnson, Jr., FR
John M. Jordan, Jr. ’62 *
John L. Kresse, FR
Edward Kronsberg, FR *
Marie M. Land, FR
Charles L. Latimer, Jr. ’44 *
Lionel K. Legge ’09 *
Wendell M. Levi ’12 *
Harry M. Lightsey, Jr., FR *
Carl J. Likes ’37 *
Tony Meyer ’49 *
William V. Moore, FR *
Harold A. Mouzon ’13 *
John D. Muller, FR *
Gregory D. Padgett ’79
J. Robertson Paul ’10 *
Edwin S. Pearlstine, Jr., FR
Milly Deas Pinckney ’51 *
Bernard F. Puckhaber ’50 *
Mary Loretto Croghan Ramsay ’42 *
Kitty Gianatos Rentiers ’51
Myrtle Craver Riggs ’46 *
G. L. Buist Rivers ’16 *
George C. Rogers, Jr. ’43 *
John Arthur Siegling ’28 *
Mary Geraty Silcox ’33 *
Willard A. Silcox ’33 *
Willard A. (Billy) Silcox, Jr. ’65
Robert Scott Small ’36 *
Sam Stafford III ’68
Theodore S. Stern, FR *
Gordan B. Stine ’44 *
Emily Molony Swanson ’89 and Steve D. Swanson ’89
W. Leigh Thompson ’57 *
Jane Lucas Thornhill ’46 *
Edward E. Towell ’34 *
Elizabeth Jenkins Young ’39 *
John A. Zeigler, Jr., FR *
*Deceased
FR=Friend of the College