Washington D.C. — April 11, 2016. Robert Storr, critic, artist, curator and scholar, will be awarded the insignia of Officer of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by Gérard Araud, French Ambassador to the United States, on Sunday, April 17, 2016, in Washington, D.C., at a dinner for the Foundation for Art and Preservation in Embassies (FAPE) of which Mr. Storr is a member.Robert Storr has made an indelible mark on the international art sphere, as a scholar, a curator, a critic and a discoverer of new talents. From 2006 to 2016, he was Dean of the Yale Art School. From 1990 to 2002 Robert Storr was Senior Curator at the Museum of Modern Art in New York.
As such, Storr made his mark with a number of major exhibitions at MoMA and elsewhere, which enhanced the public prominence of such artists as Ad Reinhardt, Bruce Nauman, Jasper Johns, Ellsworth Kelly, Sheila Hicks Elizabeth Murray, Gerhard Richter, Max Beckmann, Tony Smith and Robert Ryman.In 2007, he was the first American-born to be appointed Director of Visual Arts of the Venice Biennale, and has been so far the only one in its history. As a curator, writer, and speaker, he has voiced opinions on sensitive topics with political and societal reverberations, generating discussion on issues like racism, terrorism, and civil rights. He is also a contributor to influential art journals and magazines such as Art in America, Art Press, Frieze, Artforum, and Parkett.
Robert Storr is considered to be one of the most influential Americans in the art world today.Robert Storr has made great contributions to French art and artists. Mr. Storr has introduced some of the most important contemporary French and Francophone voices into the global art landscape and to American audiences, such as French born sculptor Louise Bourgeois, Daniel Buren, Annette Messager, Sophie Calle, Tatiana Trouvé or Jean-Michel Othoniel. Robert Storr considers France as his second country and he is very much involved with French institutions, acting as a jury or member of acquisitions committees, such as Fondation Cartier, École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts or Marcel Duchamp Prize.
His work has been awarded the Penny McCall Foundation Grant for Painting, a Norton Family Foundation Curator Grant, honorary doctorates from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and the Maine College of Art, the American Chapter of the International Association of Art Critics AICA award for Distinguished Contribution to the Field of Art Criticism, the ICI Agnes Gund Curatorial Award, and the Lawrence A. Fleischman Award for Scholarly Excellence in the Field of American Art History from the Smithsonian Institution’s Archives of American Art and, most recently, a Guggenheim Fellowship.In 2000, the French Ministry of Culture named Mr. Storr Chevalier of the Order of Arts and Letters.
The Order of Arts and Letters (Ordre des Arts et des Lettres) was established in 1957 to recognize eminent artists and writers, as well as people who have contributed significantly to furthering the arts in France and throughout the world. The Order of Arts and Letters is given out under the jurisdiction of the Minister of Culture and Communication. American recipients of the award include Paul Auster, Ornette Coleman, Agnes Gund, Marilyn Horne, Jim Jarmusch, Richard Meier, Robert Paxton, Robert Redford, Meryl Streep, and Uma Thurman.
he Cultural Services of the French Embassy promotes the best of French arts, literature, cinema, language, and higher education across the US. Based in New York City, Washington D.C., and eight other cities across the country, the Cultural Services brings artists, authors, educational and university programs to cities nationwide. It also builds partnerships between French and American artists, institutions and universities on both sides of the Atlantic. In New York, through its bookshop Albertine, it fosters French-American exchange around literature and the arts. www.frenchculture.org
Media Contact:
Emilie Cabouat-Peyrache – + 1 (212) 439-1417 – emilie.cabouat@diplomatie.gouv.fr
Frenchculture.org – @franceinnyc – facebook.com/frenchculture