The prize was established in 1996 by the Guggenheim Foundation and the German company Hugo Boss. Mr. Chan was selected from a list of five finalists including Sheela Gowda, who lives and works in Bangalore, India, where she creates paintings, sculptures and installations that speak to the culture of India; Camille Henrot, a French artist and filmmaker who lives in Paris and New York, creating videos and animated films that deal with broad subjects, like the history of civilization; Hassan Khan, an Egyptian artist living in Cairo who makes videos and sculptural installations that reflect cultural issues; and Charline von Heyl, a German-born painter who lives in New York and is best known for her abstract canvases.

In addition to the monetary prize, Mr. Chan will be given an exhibition of his work at the Guggenheim Museum in New York in the spring.

COMICS ON THE MALL

The list of fall acquisitions the National Gallery of Art in Washington will announce on Friday includes comic books — a first for the institution.

William and Abigail Gerdts, American art scholars and longtime donors to the gallery, have given it 176 comic books published between 1964 and 1977. They are prime examples of the zany work that was being produced by the San Francisco underground at the time. Included are seminal issues of Zap Comix, founded by R. Crumb, one of the grandfathers of underground cartooning. There is also work from Arcade: The Comics Revue, started by Art Spiegelman and Bill Griffith.

“How can you think about artists like Lichtenstein, Warhol, Guston or even Picasso, who loved cartoons, without comic books?” Judith Brodie, the curator of modern prints and drawings at the National Gallery, said, explaining that comic books added a layer to the story of Pop Art.