Robert Storr. Photo courtesy of Yale University.
Robert Storr. Photo courtesy of Yale University.

This coming Sunday, the curator, critic, artist, and scholar Robert Storr will be awarded the insignia of Officer of the Order of Arts and Letters by the French Ambassador to the US. The award ceremony will take place during a dinner in Washington DC for the Foundation for Art and Preservation in Embassies.

The appointment was announced by the French Embassy in Washington DC yesterday.

Storr is no stranger to French honors. In 2000, the French ministry of culture presented him with the medal of Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres, which celebrates the contributions of people in the arts to French culture. The new distinction marks a promotion from the rank of Chevalier, to Officier, with the highest rank being that of Commandeur. Recent American honorees include Paula Cooper and Carl Andre. Meanwhile, last year Richard Serra was named Chevalier of the French Legion of Honor.

Storr’s involvement with the French art landscape includes being a member of a jury or acquisitions committees for institutions like the Fondation Cartier, the École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts, and the Marcel Duchamp Prize, according to ArtForum.

Storr has an illustrious career in the arts, with highlights including a long tenure as senior curator in the department of painting and sculpture of New York’s MoMA (from 1900 to 2002), where he curated exhibitions of artists such as Ad Reinhardt, Bruce Nauman, Jasper Johns, Ellsworth Kelly, Sheila Hicks, Elizabeth Murray, Gerhard Richter, Max Beckmann, Tony Smith, and Robert Ryman.

He was also dean of Yale’s art school from 2006 until February this year, when he was succeeded by Marta Kuzma—the first woman to ever hold the position.

In 2007, Storr curated the celebrated 52nd Venice Biennale, entitled “Think with the Senses – Feel with the Mind. Art in the Present Tense”. He is, to this day, the only American to have filled the prestigious post.

Storr is a prolific critic and writer, and contributes frequently to exhibition catalogs and art magazines such as ArtForum, Frieze, Parkett, and Art Press.