Benar Venet – Artist of the Year 2022
Benar Venet (France, 1941) is one of the essential figures of conceptual art. His works in fields as varied as performance, painting, monumental sculpture, and theoretical writing. Together with the series of Arcs, Les Lignes indéterminées established his status as an essential and world-renowned artist. To date, he is the most internationally exhibited French artist with 30 public sculpture exhibitions and monumental works permanently installed in cities including Auckland, Austin, Berlin, Bonn, Denver, Geneva, Lyon, Neu-Ulm, Nice, Paris, and Seoul, Shenzhen, and Toulouse.
He is the recipient of many awards including the Grand Prix des Arts de la Ville de Paris and Chevalier de la Légion d’Honneur, France’s highest decoration. In February 2016, the International Sculpture Center endowed Venet with the 2016 Lifetime Achievement Award for his exemplary contributions to the field of sculpture. In 2020, he was admitted to the Royal Society of Sculptors.
American Friends of Museums in Israel
For many years the American Friends of Museums in Israel have honored outstanding living artists whose body of work has gained the admiration and respect of the global art community. Past honored artists include: Jaume Plensa | Tony Cragg | Richard Misrach | Desiree Dolron | Robert Longo | Tracey Emin | Ruud van Empel | Thomas Ruff | Massimo Vitali | John Baldessari | Jeff Koons | James Rosenquist