FRANCESCO BONAMI JOINS FRENCH LEGION OF HONOR

Curator Francesco Bonami has been named a member of the French Legion of Honor. Bonami was born in Florence in 1955 and has been a US citizen since 2001. He was the first US citizen to be appointed the director of the International Art Exhibition at the Venice Biennale, in 2003, at which he curated “Dreams & Conflicts,” and he is currently a curator, along with Gary Carrion-Murayari, of the 2010 Whitney Biennial, which opens February 25. From 1999 to 2008, he was senior curator at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago; he has served, since 1995, as artistic director of the Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo in Turin and also as artistic director, since 1997, of Pitti Immagine Discovery in Florence. The French Legion of Honor, an order founded by Napoleon in 1802 and headed by the nation’s president, is France’s highest recognition. Each year, the Legion admits a small number of foreign citizens in recognition of their achievement in letters and the arts.