Last week, the Independent Curators International (ICI) announced that Patrizia Sandretto Re Rebaudengo is the recipient of the 2019 prestigious Leo Award. Sandretto Re Rebaudengo will be presented the award at the ICI’s annual benefit and auction in New York City later this year in October.
The ICI is a nonprofit organization based in New York City that seeks to connect established and up-and-coming curators and artists with international art spaces. The Leo Award is named after the iconic art dealer, Leo Castelli, who revolutionized the art dealing world. The award recognizes pioneering artists and curators who have significantly contributed to their field. This year, the ICI ‘considered the importance of its own mission and core values, reflected in the achievements of the honoree’s vision: promoting accessibility to contemporary art; facilitating institutional collaboration; and investing in the next generation of curators.’ Sandretto Re Rebaudengo was chosen for the 2019 award because she checked all those boxes.
Having begun collecting art in the early 1990s, her collection now contains around 1,500 works with an emphasis on contemporary art from the past three decades. Maurizio Cattelan, Ian Cheng, Berlinde de Bruyckere, Damien Hirst, Josh Kline, Sarah Lucas, Lynette Yiadom-Boakye, Charles Ray, Cindy Sherman, and Rosemarie Trockel are only some of the artists represented in her collection.
In 1995, she founded the Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo (FSRR), of which she is the president, that proceeded to open its first exhibition space in 1997 in Guarene d’Alba. In 2002, the FSRR moved to Turin where it became a centre for research and experimentation for artists. Soon, the foundation will be opening another location in Madrid, which will be designed by David Adjaye. The FSRR has helped foster an ‘audience through education’ and continues to support the work of contemporary artists.
‘With this Award, we honor Patrizia’s relentless support of art and cultural exchange,’ said Renaud Proch, ICI executive director, in a press release. ‘Through the Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo’s exceptional exhibition program in Turin, its Education Department and the Young Curators Residency, Patrizia has shown great dedication to encouraging discourse and international engagement — two core ICI values. We are proud to welcome her among the “Leos”.’
In response to the reward, Sandretto Re Rebaudengo said: ‘I am delighted and honored to receive the Leo Award. Since the beginning, the passion and daily work of the Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo has been to contribute to an opening up of contemporary art to a wider audience. Investing in young curators and artists has been an exciting, rewarding and vital part of Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo’s programme, which we are seeking always to develop. To have this work acknowledged by Independent Curators International is a true privilege.’
Sandretto Re Rebaudengo is also a member of the MoMA’s international council, the New Museum’s leadership council, the Modern and Contemporary Art of the Philadelphia Museum of Art’s advisory committee, and Center for Curatorial Studies board of governors at Bard College. Past recipients of the award include the likes of Dimitris Daskalopoulos, Marian Goodman, Michael Govan, Roy and Dorothy Lichtenstein, Patricia Phelps de Cisneros, Miuccia Prada, Emily Rauh Pulitzer, and Dasha Zhukova, to name only a few.
Photo: Patrizia Sandretto Re Rebaudengo (center) pictured with the Mayor of Turin, Chiara Appendino (left) and Mayor of Madrid, Manuela Carmena (right) in 2017 after announcing the expansion of the Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo. Courtesy Wikimedia Commons.
