Robert Storr (born 1949) is an American

curator A curator (from la, cura, meaning "to take care") is a manager or overseer. When working with cultural organizations, a curator is typically a "collections curator" or an "exhibitions curator", and has multifaceted tasks dependent on the parti ...

critic A critic is a person who communicates an assessment and an opinion of various forms of creative works such as art, literature, music, cinema, theater, fashion, architecture, and food. Critics may also take as their subject social or governmen ...

painter Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a solid surface (called the "matrix" or "support"). The medium is commonly applied to the base with a brush, but other implements, such as knives, sponges, and ai ...

, and

writer A writer is a person who uses written words in different writing styles and techniques to communicate ideas. Writers produce different forms of literary art and creative writing such as novels, short stories, books, poetry, travelogues, p ...

Education

Robert Storr received his B.A. in History and French from

Swarthmore College Swarthmore College ( , ) is a Private college, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Swarthmore, Pennsylvania. Founded in 1864, with its first classes held in 1869, Swarthmore is one of the earliest coeduca ...

in 1972, and earned an M.F.A. in Art from the

School of the Art Institute of Chicago The School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC) is a private art school associated with the Art Institute of Chicago (AIC) in Chicago, Illinois. Tracing its history to an art students' cooperative founded in 1866, which grew into the museum and ...

in 1978.

Career

From 1990 to 2002 Storr was

, then senior curator, in the Department of Painting and Sculpture at the

Museum of Modern Art The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues. It plays a major role in developing and collecting modern art, and is often identified as one of ...

. As a curator, Storr made his mark early with a number of major exhibitions at the museum and elsewhere, which enhanced the public prominence of such artists as Elizabeth Murray, Gerhard Richter, Max Beckmann, Tony Smith and Robert Ryman. He also organized a number of reinstallations of MoMA's permanent collection, covering such topics as abstraction and the modern grotesque. From 2002 to 2006 he was the first Rosalie Solow Professor of Modern Art at the

Institute of Fine Arts The Institute of Fine Arts (IFA) of New York University is dedicated to graduate teaching and advanced research in the history of art, archaeology and the conservation and technology of works of art. It offers Master of Arts and Doctor of Philoso ...

New York University New York University (NYU) is a private research university in New York City. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded by a group of New Yorkers led by then-Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin. In 1832, the ...

. Per

New York magazine ''New York'' is an American biweekly magazine concerned with life, culture, politics, and style generally, and with a particular emphasis on New York City. Founded by Milton Glaser and Clay Felker in 1968 as a competitor to ''The New Yorker'', ...

, he is considered to be one of the most influential Americans in the art world. Storr has been described as "an artist who's logged enough studio time to have a special regard for painters' painters ... and a gifted writer who can make us appreciate them, too." and a "vital link between the museum world and academia." Over the years, he has written for the following publications: ''

Art in America ''Art in America'' is an illustrated monthly, international magazine concentrating on the contemporary art world in the United States, including profiles of artists and genres, updates about art movements, show reviews and event schedules. It i ...

'', ''

Artforum ''Artforum'' is an international monthly magazine specializing in contemporary art. The magazine is distinguished from other magazines by its unique 10½ x 10½ inch square format, with each cover often devoted to the work of an artist. Notabl ...

'', '' Art Press'', ''

Corriere della sera The ''Corriere della Sera'' (; en, "Evening Courier") is an Italian daily newspaper published in Milan with an average daily circulation of 410,242 copies in December 2015. First published on 5 March 1876, ''Corriere della Sera'' is one of It ...

'', ''

Frieze In architecture, the frieze is the wide central section part of an entablature and may be plain in the Ionic or Doric order, or decorated with bas-reliefs. Paterae are also usually used to decorate friezes. Even when neither columns nor ...

'', ''

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

'', ''

Washington Post ''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...

'', ''

Village Voice ''The Village Voice'' is an American news and culture paper, known for being the country's first alternative newsweekly. Founded in 1955 by Dan Wolf, Ed Fancher, John Wilcock, and Norman Mailer, the ''Voice'' began as a platform for the creat ...

'', ''

The Brooklyn Rail ''The Brooklyn Rail'' is a publication and platform for the arts, culture, humanities, and politics. The ''Rail'' is based out of Brooklyn, New York. It features in-depth critical essays, fiction, poetry, as well as interviews with artists, criti ...

'', ''

Art & Design Graphic design is a profession, academic discipline and applied art whose activity consists in projecting visual communications intended to transmit specific messages to social groups, with specific objectives. Graphic design is an interdiscipli ...

'', and ''

Interview An interview is a structured conversation where one participant asks questions, and the other provides answers.Merriam Webster DictionaryInterview Dictionary definition, Retrieved February 16, 2016 In common parlance, the word "interview" ...

''. Until April 2011 his regular column 'View from the Bridge' appeared in ''Frieze'' magazine. He was the first American Director of Visual Arts of the

Venice Biennale The Venice Biennale (; it, La Biennale di Venezia) is an international cultural exhibition hosted annually in Venice, Italy by the Biennale Foundation. The biennale has been organised every year since 1895, which makes it the oldest of ...

in 2007. He has taught at the CUNY graduate center and the Bard Center for Curatorial Studies as well as the Rhode Island School of Design, Tyler School of Art, New York Studio School and Harvard University, and has been a frequent lecturer in this country and abroad. Storr was reappointed Dean of the

Yale School of Art The Yale School of Art is the art school of Yale University. Founded in 1869 as the first professional fine arts school in the United States, it grants Masters of Fine Arts degrees to students completing a two-year course in graphic design, painti ...

for a second five-year period beginning July 2011. After completing his second term as Dean, Storr continues to teach at the Yale School of Art as a tenured Professor in the Department of Painting/Printmaking

Awards and honors

He has been awarded a Penny McCall Foundation Grant for painting, a Norton Family Foundation Curator Grant, a Guggenheim Fellowship in 2016, and honorary doctorates from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, the Maine College of Art, Swarthmore College, the University of the Arts London, the

Nova Scotia College of Art and Design NSCAD University, also known as the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design or NSCAD, is a public art university in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. The university is a co-educational institution that offers bachelor's and master's degrees. The univ ...

, and

Montserrat College of Art Montserrat College of Art is a private, non-profit art college located in Beverly within Essex County of Massachusetts. The school is accredited by both the New England Commission of Higher Education and the National Association of Schools of Ar ...

. He also received awards from the American Chapter of the International Association of Art Critics, a special AICA award for Distinguished Contribution to the Field of Art Criticism, an ICI Agnes Gund Curatorial Award, and the Lawrence A. Fleischman Award for Scholarly Excellence in the Field of American Art History from the Smithsonian Institution's Archives of American Art. In June 2017 his book, "Intimate Geometries: The Art and Life of Louise Bourgeois" was awarded the FILAF D'OR at the Festival International du Livre d'Art et du Film, Pergignan, France. In 2000 the French Ministry of Culture presented him with the medal of Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres and in 2010 promoted him to Officier of the same order.

Personal Studio Practice

In addition to his curatorial and academic accomplishments Storr is also himself a practicing visual artist. In a 2012 Seattle Times interview regarding an exhibition of his paintings at Seattle’s Francine Seders Gallery he was quoted as saying, "I started out as a painter more than 35 years ago, and I’ve never stopped. I’ve never become an ex-painter. ..I certainly know how difficult it is to make art. ..Making art has made me a better curator. Whether or not being a curator has made me a better artist remains to be seen.” The four paintings made by Storr featured in this exhibition were titled ''S.P. #1, 2, 3, and 4'', and were geometric abstractions featuring horizontal divisions between black and white space with pairs of smaller red dots occupying the white space. The show paired Storr's work with paintings by Denzil Hurley.

Associations

Complementing his career as a curator, writer, painter and teacher, he serves on the Art Advisory Council of the

International Foundation for Art Research The International Foundation for Art Research (IFAR) is a non-profit organization which was established to channel and coordinate scholarly and technical information about works of art. IFAR provides an administrative and legal framework within wh ...

br> (IFAR)

Selected works

A comprehensive bibliography of Storr's published writing from 1980 through April 2020 has been compiled by Francesca Pietropaolo in ''Robert Storr Writings on Art 1980-2005'', Heni Publishing, 2020. Storr's published writings encompass 928 works in 1983 publications in 12 languages and 32,500 library holdings. Robert Storr
/ref> * ''Robert Storr Writings on Art 2006-2021,'' edited and with an introduction by Francesca Pietropaolo, Heni Publishing, November 2021 * ''Crumb's World, with an essay by Robert Storr,'' David Zwirner Books, 2021 * ''Robert Storr Writings on Art 1980-2005'', edited and with an introduction by Francesca Pietropaolo, Heni Publishing, November 2020 * ''Philip Guston: A Life Spent Painting'', Laurence King Publishing, 2020 * ''Robert Storr Interviste sull'arte'', edited and with a preface by Francesca Pietropaolo, 2019 (in Italian) * ''Nancy Graves: Mapping,'' Mitchell-Innes & Nash, 2019 * ''Unfettering Reveries: The Incompiuto Siciliano''. In Robert Storr, Marc Auge, Alterazioni Video et al. ''Incompiuto. The Birth of a Style''. Milan: Humboldt Books, 2018 * ''Robert Storr Interviews on Art, edited and with a preface by Francesca Pietropaolo, '' Heni, 2017 * ''Intimate Geometries: the Art and Life of Louise Bourgeois,'' The Monacelli Press, 2016 * ''How to Look: Ad Reinhardt Art Comics,'' David Zwirner Books, 2013 * ''Selections from the private collection of Robert Rauschenberg,'' Gagosian Gallery, 2012 * ''In direzione ostinata e contraria: scritti sull'arte contemporanea,'', edited, introduced and translated by Francesca Pietropaolo 2011 * ''The Painter's Painter'' essay in ''Arshille Gorky: A Retrospective,'' 2010 * ''Alice Neel Painted Truths,'' Yale University Press, 2010 * ''September: A History Painting by Gerhardt Richter,'' Tate Publishing, 2009 * ''Gerhardt Richter: the Cage Paintings,'' Heni, 2009 * ''Think with the senses, feel with the mind: art in the present tense,'' Catalog for the 52nd Biennale di Venezia, Rizzoli, 2007 * ''Concentration Now Begins...'' essay in ''Thomas Nozkowski; Subject to Change,'' Ludwig Museum, 2007 * ''As Far as the Eye Can See'' essay in ''Rackstraw Downes,'' Princeton University Press, 2005 * ''Elizabeth Murray,'' Museum of Modern Art, 2005 * ''Popped Art,'' Museum of Modern Art, 2005 * ''Touching Down Lightly,'' 2005 * ''Disparities & Deformations: Our Grotesque,'' Exhibition Catalog, The Fifth Annual Santa Fe Biennial, 2004 * ''Louise Bourgeois,'' Phaidon, 2003 * ''Gerhard Richter: Doubt and Belief in Painting,'' Museum of Modern Art, 2003 * ''Nancy Spero : The War Series, 1966-1970,'' Charta, 2003 * ''Gerhard Richter: Forty Years of Painting,'' Museum of Modern Art, 2002 * ''Philip Pearlstein Since 1983,'' Harry N. Abrams, 2002 * ''Modern Art Despite Modernism,'' Museum of Modern Art, 2000 * ''Gerhard Richter : October 18, 1977,'' Museum of Modern Art, 2000 * ''Prince of Tides : Robert Storr talks with Harald Szeemann,'' 1999 * ''On the Edge : Contemporary Art from the Werner and

Elaine Dannheisser Elaine Dannheisser (Brooklyn 1923 - 2001 Manhattan) was an avid contemporary art collector and driving force behind the Werner and Elaine Dannheisser Art Collection. She was a onetime trustee of the Guggenheim Museum. Following an exhibition of her ...

collection,'' 1998 * ''Chuck Close,'' Museum of Modern Art, 1998 * ''Franz West,'' 1997 * ''Bruce Nauman,'' Museum of Modern Art, 1995 * ''Between a Rock and a Hard Place,'' Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, 1994 * ''Mapping,'' Museum of Modern Art, 1994 * ''Robert Ryman,'' Museum of Modern Art, 1993 * ''Devil on the Stairs: Looking Back on the Eighties,'' 1991 * ''Dislocations,'' Museum of Modern Art, 1991 * ''Art, censorship and the First Amendment: this is not a test,'' 1991 * ''Philip Guston,'' 1986 * ''Tilted Arc: Enemy of the People?,'' 1985

References

External links

*PKULTRA art gallery (formerly Form/Space Atelier

Exhibits Robert Storr's Autograph And Other Wor

*Watch Chuck Close and Robert Storr in Conversation o
BUniverse
*Venice Bienniale website
English version

"The Most Influential Americans in Art"
in ''

'', accessed 5 October 2006. *"Critic, artist and curator Robert Storr named Dean of the Yale School of Art". Yale Universit
press release
February 28, 2006. * Watch Robert Storr presenting his book ''Interviste sull'arte'' at Accademia di San Luca, Rome, May 17, 2019 (in English and Italian): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k037nOnh9KI * Watch Robert Storr moderating the panel "Visions of Nature in the Age of Climate Change", Chiesa delle Penitenti, Venice, May 11–12, 2019 (as part of the public program of a Collateral Event of the 2019 Venice Biennale): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m9SdrhNDoT8&mc_cid=1209079652&mc_eid=ccae586ff2 * Watch Robert Storr speaking on The Cage Paintings of Gerhard Richter: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aOeKj-w-3fY * Robert Storr interviewed by Judith Benhamou on his second volume of collected writings, 2022: https://judithbenhamouhuet.com/robert-storr-the-art-world-today-is-almost-entirely-commercial-a-meeting-with-the-great-american-art-critic-capable-of-numerous-premonitions/ * Artribune review of the book "Writings on Art 2006-2021" by Adriana Scalise: https://www.artribune.com/editoria/2022/06/libro-robert-storr-writings-on-art-2006-2021/ {{DEFAULTSORT:Storr, Robert American art curators American art critics American artists Swarthmore College alumni School of the Art Institute of Chicago alumni University of Chicago Laboratory Schools alumni Living people 1949 births Venice Biennale artistic directors