New York, February 28, 2019 –  To celebrate their coinciding 25th anniversaries, The Armory Show and Étant donnés—a the contemporary art fund developed by the FACE Foundation and the Cultural Services of the French Embassy—are joining forces for the first time ever to award one living French artist of the Armory Show 2019 to take place March 7-10.  Selected among more than 30 works presented by Armory Show galleries this coming edition, the Étant donnés Armory Prize winner will be unveiled at the beginning of the show and will receive a $10,000 prize to be shared between the artist and his gallery.

25 years of support to French creativity in and with the United States

For the past 25th years, Étant donnés has aimed to strengthen artistic and cultural ties between France and the U.S by encouraging long-lasting partnerships between French visual artists, curators and collectives and American curators and cultural institutions through grants, fellowships, and residencies.
Since its inception in 1994, Étant donnés has developed an international reputation by allocating over $3 million to fund more than 300 projects and up to 30 curators.  Institutions that have been supported by the fund include the Guggenheim Museum, the Whitney Museum, the DIA Art Foundation, MoMA PS1, the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles, the MCA in Chicago, the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, and the Wexner Art Center in Ohio.
Artists that have been funded by Étant donnés include Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster, Pierre Huyghe, Koo Jeong A, Isabelle Cornaro, Christine Rebet, John Currin, Sterling Ruby, Roe Etheridge, and Diana Thater.  Curators that have been supported by the fund include Nicholas Baume, Tim Griffin, Fionn Meade, Lauri Firstenberg, and Silvia Karman Cubina.

A unpreceded collaboration to shed light on French contemporary creativity in the art scene

Étant donnés along with The Armory Show will be choosing from a selection of living French artists presented by fair galleries to award the prize of $10,000 to one artist.
Among artists exhibited at the show are prominent French and Francophone artists such as Pierre Soulage, Tatiana Trouvé, Sophie Calle, Valerie Belin, Laure Prouvost, Kapwani Kiwanga, Kader Attia, Jean-Michel Othoniel, and Barthélémy Toguo.  Among them, many have been given grants by Etant donnés in the past.

Étant donnés Contemporary Art is a fund aiming at strengthening ties between France and the US in the field of contemporary art by fostering active collaboration and encouraging long-lasting partnerships between French visual artists, curators and collectives and American curators and cultural institutions.

Sponsors and partners of the fund include the Comité Professionnel des Galeries d’Art, the French Ministry of Culture, the Cultural Services of the French Embassy, the Institut français, the Helen Frankenthaler Foundation, the Florence Gould Foundation, the Société des Auteurs dans les Arts graphique et plastiques (CPGA), and Chanel USA.

FACE Foundation is an American nonprofit organization dedicated to supporting French-American relations through innovative cultural and educational projects.  In partnership with the Cultural Services of the French Embassy in the United States, FACE Foundation promotes artistic, literary and educational exchange and collaboration between creative professionals from both countries.  FACE Foundation administers grant programs in the performing and visual arts, cinema, translation, and secondary and higher education, while providing financial sponsorship to French-American festivals and other cultural initiatives. FACE Foundation focuses on new and recent work of living artists and the promotion of bilingualism and the French language.

Started by New York gallerists Colin de Land, Pat Hearn, Matthew Marks, and Paul Morris, The Armory Art Show was conceived out of a need for a platform to promote new voices and perspectives in the visual arts.  In the past 25 years the show has become one of New York’s leading art fairs, and it remains an unmissable art event that welcomes 65,000 visitors annually.  The 2019 Armory Art Show will take place from March 7 to 10 at Piers 92 and 94. 

The Cultural Services of the French Embassy promotes the best of French arts, literature, cinema, digital innovation, 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, intellectuals and innovators 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

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Media Contact:

Camille Desprez, Cultural Services of the French Embassy, camille.desprez@diplomatie.gouv.fr, +1.212.439.1417