VIA WIKIMEDIA COMMONS
The U.S. French Embassy announced today that Robert Storr, the former dean of the Yale University School of Art, will be named an officer of France’s Order of Arts and Letters. Storr had previously been a chevalier in the order, which honors people in the arts who have contributed to French culture. (Paula Cooper and Carl Andre are among other recent American honorees.)
Though better known stateside for his time at Yale, and for being a senior curator at the Museum of Modern Art from 1990 to 2002, Storr has made major contributions to the arts abroad. In 2007 Storr was the director of visual arts at the Venice Biennale, and he remains the only American to have held this position.
A release goes on to state that Storr has also “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.” (He is probably better known for being an avid fan of Bruce Nauman, Ad Reinhardt, and Gerhard Richter, all of whom are not French.)
Storr has been on committees for French institutions and awards, including the Marcel Duchamp Prize, the Fondation Cartier, and the École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts. The release also notes that Storr considers France his second country.