NEW YORK.-On March 30, Kareen Rispal, Cultural Counselor of the Embassy of France, will confer upon Patrick Demarchelier, John Elderfield, and Deborah Treisman the Order of Arts and Letters.
Patrick Demarchelier’s talent has made him one of the greatest photographers in the world of fashion and beauty. He has worked for some of the most renowned names in fashion, including Calvin Klein and Chanel, Vogue and Harper’s Bazaar, as well as for Broadway campaigns, musicians (he has shot album covers for Elton John, Madonna…), movie campaigns… And he has photographed countless celebrities, including Bill and Hillary Clinton, Princess Diana, Angelina Jolie, Robert de Niro, Karl Lagerfeld and Yves Saint Laurent. Mr. Demarchelier’s work has been exhibited both here and abroad (most recently, at the Petit Palais in Paris) and he has two publications to his credit.
John Elderfield was appointed The Museum of Modern Art’s Chief Curator Emeritus of Painting and Sculpture in August 2008, crowning a remarkable career with one of the world’s foremost art museums. During his distinguished career, he has organized several exhibits featuring French artists, including Manet and the Execution of Maximilian (2006–2007), Bonnard (1998), and The Wild Beasts: Fauvism and its Affinities (1976). But he has been especially keen on Matisse, having organized, among others, Matisse Picasso (co-curator, 2003), Henri Matisse: A Retrospective (1992), and Matisse in The Collection of The Museum of Modern Art (1978–79). Mr. Elderfield is the author of numerous catalogues and essays and has written extensively for many international art journals. He is being elevated to the rank of officier of the Order of Arts and Letters, having been a chevalier of that order since 1985.
Deborah Treisman, the New Yorker’s Fiction Editor since 2002, has played a key role in promoting world literature in the United States. She has made it a priority to include non-American writers in the country’s literary discourse, and has even taken matters into her own hands by translating several French-language works, including texts by Marguerite Duras, Patrick Chamoiseau, Tahar Ben Jelloun, Linda Lê, and, most recently, Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clézio (she translated his short story “Celui qui n’avait jamais vu la mer” in 24 hours upon learning he’d won the Nobel Prize, so that it could run in the New Yorker’s following issue).
The Ordre des Arts et des Lettres (Order of the Arts and Letters) was created in 1957 to recognize eminent artists and writers, as well as individuals who have contributed to the recognition of French culture in the world. The Order is given out twice annually to only a few hundred people worldwide. Several Americans have received the award, including Paul Auster, Ornette Coleman, Agnes Gund, Marilyn Horne, Jim Jarmusch, Richard Meier, Robert Paxton, Robert Redford, Meryl Streep and Uma Thurman.
