Japanese-born artist Yoko Ono will receive a Golden Lion Award in recognition of her career at the 53rd International Art Exhibition, also known as the Venice Biennale.
The same recognition will be given to the American conceptual artist John Baldessari.
The decision to give the lifetime achievement awards to the two artists was made by the Biennale board of directors, chaired by Paolo Baratta, on a recommendation from the exhibition's director Daniel Birnbaum.
''These Golden Lion career awards celebrate two artists whose avant-garde work has opened new possibilities of poetic, conceptual and social expression for artists all over the world,'' Birnbaum said.
''Yoko Ono and John Baldessari have given form to our comprehension of art and its relationship with the world we live in. Their work has revolutionised the language of art and will remain a source of inspiration for generations to come,'' he added.
The awards will be handed out during the inauguration of the Biennale on June 6.
The 53rd Biennale will run until November 22.
Yoko Ono, 76, is a key figure in post-war art. A pioneer in performance and conceptual art, she remains one of the most influential artists today.
Long before becoming a pop icon - in part thanks to her marriage to the late John Lennon - Ono was a recognised art figure both in her native Japan and the West.
Ono is no stranger to Italy and last year she was one of 22 avant-garde artists who contributed to the Milan exhibition A Hole In Silence.
The other artists included Joseph Beuys, John Cage and Mircea Cantor.
In 2007 Ono became the latest artist to be enrolled by the Fattoria Nittardi vineyard to design a label for a limited edition of its Chianti Classico Casanova wine.
Ono's 2004 artistic video installation entitled Onochord, which she defined as a ''message of universal love'', premiered at the Venice Film Festival.
Six months later a film about the avant-garde artist and her life with Lennon opened Rome's Music Doc Fest, the international festival devoted to documentaries on the world of music and dance.
California-born John Baldessari, 78, is one of today's most important living artists and has had over 120 personal shows both in the US and Europe.
His initial success came from his so-called text paintings, statements painted on canvas, which then evolved into juxtaposing images, mostly photographic, with text.
This was followed by his 'pointing' series in which a hand points to images the viewers is supposed to look at.
