Bernar Venet receives the American Friends of Museums in Israel’s Artist of the Year 2022 award.

Congratulations to Bernar Venet, one of the greatest living French artists, on receiving the award in a ceremony this week. He joins past honoured artists including John Baldessari, Tony Cragg, Tracey Emin and Jeff Koons.

For many years the American Friends of Museums in Israel have honoured outstanding living artists whose body of work has gained the admiration and respect of the global art community. The collaboration between the honoree and the American Friends results in the creation and publication of a special limited edition whose sales help fund the work the organisations does in support of their eight partner museums in Israel.

Bernar Venet (b.1941, Château-Arnoux, France), is a conceptual artist best known for his curved sculptures in steel which appear to defy gravity with their mathematical precision and swooping forms.

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, 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 the 2016 Lifetime Achievement Award for his exemplary contributions to the field of sculpture and in 2020 he was admitted to the Royal Society of Sculptors.