Jeff Koons and Cindy Sherman Donate to the Foundation for Art and Preservation in Embassies’ Original Print and Photography Collections
Cindy Sherman. Photo: Mark Seliger
© Jeff Koons. Photo: Chris Fanning
Washington, D.C. – March 1, 2015 - The Foundation for Art and Preservation in Embassies (FAPE) is pleased to announce the 2015 contributions to its Original Print and Photography Collections by artists Jeff Koons and Cindy Sherman. These works will be unveiled for the first time at a reception and dinner at the U.S. Department of State’s Diplomatic Reception Rooms on Monday, April 20, 2015. Koons and Sherman join fellow American artists who have donated original works to FAPE for display in U.S. embassies around the world.
“Jeff Koons and Cindy Sherman are two of the most internationally renowned and influential American artists of our time,” said FAPE Chairman Jo Carole Lauder. “Both artists have pushed the boundaries of their work. Their creativity embodies the innovative spirit of America, and FAPE is proud to include their generous donations in our Collection.”
Jeff Koons is the 23rd artist to donate a new work to the Original Print Collection, FAPE’s longest-running program. It began in 1989, when Frank Stella donated The Symphony in an edition large enough for a print to be sent to every American embassy. Each year since 1995, a distinguished American artist has donated a new edition of original prints to the Collection. The artists who have donated to the Collection are: John Baldessari; Louisiana Bendolph; Mary Lee Bendolph; Loretta Bennett; Vija Celmins; Chuck Close; Jasper Johns; Alex Katz; Ellsworth Kelly; Roy Lichtenstein; Robert Mangold; Brice Marden; Julie Mehretu; Elizabeth Murray; Loretta Pettway; Robert Rauschenberg; James Rosenquist; Susan Rothenberg; Ed Ruscha; Joel Shapiro; Frank Stella and Terry Winters.
In 2013, FAPE launched a collection of American photography with donations by Tina Barney and William Wegman. FAPE’s Photography Collection expanded in 2014 with donations by Richard Benson, Sidney
Page 1 of 3 Felsen and Carrie Mae Weems. Cindy Sherman is the sixth artist to donate an edition to FAPE’s newest initiative.
The Original Print and Photography Collections, as well as the Site-Specific and GIFT TO THE NATION Collections, support FAPE’s mission of cross-cultural understanding within the diplomatic community and the international public. Together, the works showcase the diversity, creativity and strength of America’s culture.
About Jeff Koons (American, 1955) Jeff Koons is one of the world’s most influential artists, known for creating such icons as Rabbit, Puppy, and Balloon Dog.
His work is the subject of a major exhibition organized by the Whitney Museum of American Art, Jeff Koons: A Retrospective (June 27 - October 19, 2014), which is currently on view at the Centre Pompidou Paris (November 26, 2014 - April 27, 2015), and will next travel to the Guggenheim Bilbao (June 12 - September 27, 2015). His public sculptures, such as the monumental floral Puppy and Split-Rocker, have captivated audiences at Rockefeller Center New York, Chateau Versailles, the Papal Palace Avignon, and the Guggenheim Bilbao.
Mr. Koons is an Officier of the Legion d’Honneur, a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, an Honorary Royal Academician, and holds honorary doctorates from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and the Corcoran College of Art and Design, Washington, DC. Former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton presented Koons with the State Department’s Medal of the Arts for his outstanding commitment to the Art in Embassies Program and international cultural exchange.
Among his many philanthropic activities, Mr. Koons is a member of the Board of Directors of the International Centre for Missing & Exploited Children (ICMEC), and he and his wife Justine are the co-founders of the Koons Family Institute on International Law and Policy, an initiative of ICMEC.
Mr. Koons lives and works in New York.
About Cindy Sherman (American, 1954) Born in 1954 in Glen Ridge, New Jersey, Cindy Sherman is counted among the most influential artists of the last half-century. Upon graduating from the State University of New York at Buffalo in 1976, Sherman relocated to New York City where she began making the seminal Untitled Film Stills. She has gone on to photograph and cast herself in various roles through her masterful use of costume, setting and pose. A retrospective of Sherman’s work was exhibited at The Museum of Modern Art, New York in 2012. Accompanied by a comprehensive catalogue, the exhibition traveled to the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis and the Dallas Museum of Art. Also, in February 2012, Hatje Cantz, in cooperation with the Sammlung Verbund Vienna, published a catalogue raisonné of formative early works produced by Sherman between 1975 and 1977. More recently, the exhibition “Untitled Horrors” traveled to the Astrup Fearnley Museum, Olso; Moderna Museet, Stockholm; and Kunsthaus Zürich. An exhibition at Sammlung Goetz is scheduled to open January 2015.
Cindy Sherman has had one-person exhibitions at institutions that include: The Museum of Modern Art, New York (2012); San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (2012); Walker Art Center, Minneapolis (2012); Dallas Museum of Art (2012); Sammlung Verbund, Vertikale Galerie, Vienna (2012); Centre de la photographie, Geneva (2012); National Gallery of Iceland, Reykjavík (2010); Martin-Gropius-Bau, Berlin (2007); Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Copenhagen (2007); Kunsthaus Bregenz, Austria (2006/07)); Jeu de Paume, Paris (2006); Kestnergesellschaft, Hanover, Germany (2004); Serpentine Gallery, London (2003); Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (1997); Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago (1997); Museum of Modern Art, New York (1997); Museum Boijmans-van Beuningen, Rotterdam (1996); Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia, Madrid (1996); and the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York (1987). Sherman has most recently participated in major group shows and biennials such as: Bad Thoughts: Collection of Martijn and Jeanette Sanders, Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam (2014); Urban Theater: New York Art in the 1980s, The Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, Texas (2014); Paparazzi! Photographers, Stars, and Artists, Centre Pompidou Paris; Schirn Kunsthalle Frankfurt; Musee de l’Eysee, Lausanne (2015); The Encyclopedic Palace
Page 2 of 3 55th Venice Biennial (2013); NYC 1993! Experimental Jet Set, Trash, and No Star, New Museum, New York (2013); A Bigger Splash: Painting After Performance, Tate Modern, London (2012); Regarding Warhol: Sixty Artists, Fifty Years, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (2012); ILLUMInations, 54th Venice Biennale (2011); 10,000 Lives, Gwangju Biennale, South Korea (2010); Skin Fruit: Selections from the Dakis Joannou Collection, New Museum, New York (2010); Mapping the Studio: Artists from the François Pinault Collection, Punta della Dogana, Venice (2009/10); and The Pictures Generation: 1974-1984, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (2009).
About FAPE FAPE is the leading public-private partnership dedicated to providing permanent works of American art for U.S. embassies worldwide through site-specific commissions, original print and photography collections, preservation projects and other arts initiatives. FAPE contributes to the U.S. Department of State’s mission of cultural diplomacy by partnering with American artists whose gifts encourage cross-cultural understanding within the diplomatic community and the international public. All artworks commissioned or placed by FAPE are gifts, representing the generosity and patriotism of some of the country’s greatest artists and donors. As of 2015, FAPE’s contributions include permanent works by more than 200 preeminent American artists placed in more than 140 countries.
FAPE was founded in 1986 by Leonore Annenberg, Wendy W. Luers, Lee Kimche McGrath and Carol Price. Its current leadership includes Chairman Jo Carole Lauder, President Eden Rafshoon, Vice President Darren Walker, and Director Jennifer A. Duncan. A volunteer advisory committee chaired by Robert Storr, Dean of the Yale School of Art, selects and commissions all FAPE artists. FAPE underwrites the fabrication and installation, and is exclusively funded through individual, foundation and corporate donations.
Additional information about FAPE can be found at www.fapeglobal.org.
Follow FAPE’s announcements, events and artists on Facebook and Instagram using the hashtag #FAPEglobal.
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Media Contacts
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