| Judith Benhamou-Huet | |
| Birth Name: | Judith Benhamou-Huet |
| Birth Place: | France |
| Occupation: | Journalist, independent curator, author |
| Language: | French, English |
| Nationality: | French |
| Genre: | Art history, art |
Judith Benhamou-Huet is a French journalist, independent curator and author specialized in art and the art market. She is a weekly columnist for the French newspaper Les Echos and regularly publishes articles related to art and the art market on her own blog Judith Benhamou-Huet Reports.[1] Benhamou-Huet is also the author of a number of books as well as an independent curator.
In the early 1990s, Benhamou-Huet began her career as a weekly columnist for the French daily Les Échos Benhamou-Huet collaborated with Interview Magazine, Vogue Paris, Neue Zürcher Zeitung, Art & Auction, Artinfo, ArtPress, Beaux-Arts and Connaissance des Arts. In the early 2000s she began her weekly column for the French Magazine Le Point. She is now also involved in Les Echos TV and BFM TV where she presents, on a weekly basis, her views on current art exhibitions of the French and international art scene.
Alongside to her journalistic achievements, Benhamou-Huet wrote several books. Among them are Art Business[2] (2001) and Art Business (2)[3] (2007), published in English with the title The Worth of Art and The Worth of Art (2). In these publications, Benhamou-Huet analyzes the principles of valuation in the contemporary art market. Thus far, the two volumes have been translated from French to English, Mandarin Chinese and Russian.
In 2008, Benhamou-Huet authored Global Collectors,[4] written in both French and English and published by Phébus in which she profiled 120 international art collectors.
In 2012, Benhamou-Huet wrote Les Artistes ont Toujours Aimé L'Argent. D'Albrecht Durer à Damien Hirst,[5] a study of notable artists throughout history and their – sometimes unexpected - relationship to money. The book was published by Grasset in France and by World Publishing Beijing in China.
In 2014, Benhamou-Huet authored a biographical account of the life of the artist, Robert Mapplethorpe, published in France by Grasset. Titled Dans la vie noire et blanche de Robert Mapplethorpe,[6] the book was followed closely by Mapplethorpe, Vivant – Réponse à des Questions[7] in which Benhamou-Huet presented a series of exclusive interviews of relatives, friends, curators and former boyfriends of Mapplethorpe, each relating singular details of the artist’s life and art. The book was published by Presses du Réel. Both works emanate from researches Benhamou-Huet did on the occasion of her curating and co-curating two shows on Mapplethorpe at the Musée Rodin[8] and at the Grand Palais[9] in Paris.
As an independent curator, Benhamou-Huet curated an exhibition titled Warhol TV[10] (2009) in which she explored Andy Warhol's connection to television and for which she also wrote the exhibition catalogue.[11] Warhol TV toured in Paris at La Maison Rouge, the Berardo Museum[12] in Lisbon, and in several other institutions in Brazil including Oi Futuro Flamengo[13] in Rio de Janeiro, Oi Futoro[13] in Belo Horizonte and Sesc Pinheiros[14] in São Paulo.
In 2014, Benhamou-Huet co-curated the exhibition "Mapplethorpe-Rodin"[8] at the Musée Rodin in Paris and was an associate-curator of the Robert Mapplethorpe retrospective[9] at the Grand Palais.
Judith has curated an exhibition of the Chinese artist Ai Weiwei at the Mucem in Marseille. The exhibition Ai Weiwei Fan-Tan has opened in June 2018 and featured works by Ai Weiwei in dialogue with the museum's collection.
In 2022, Judith has co-curated the exhibition Serra/Seurat. Drawings at the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao. The exhibition brings together a selection of 22 drawings by the late 19th-century master Georges Seurat, which in turn engage in dialogue with the drawings of Richard Serra, a great admirer of Seurat’s.
| Year | Title | Publisher | ISBN | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2001 | Art business : Le marché de l'art ou l'art du marché[15] | Assouline | ||
| 2001 | The Worth of Art: Pricing the Priceless[16] | Assouline | ||
| 2006 | Femme Cuillière | Cinq Sens | ||
| 2008 | Art Business (2)[17] | Assouline | ||
| 2008 | The Worth of Art (2) | Assouline | ||
| 2008 | Global Collectors[18] | Phoebus / Senses | ||
| 2009 | 21st-Century Embroidery in India: In Their Hands | Prestel Publishing | ||
| 2010 | Les œuvres d'Art les plus chères du monde | Éditions du Chêne | ||
| 2012 | Les artistes ont toujours aimé l'argent | Grasset | ||
| 2014 | Mapplethorpe, vivant - réponse à des questions | Les Presses du réel | ||
| 2014 | Dans la vie noire et blanche de Robert Mapplethorpe | Grasset | ||
| 2015 | Les artistes ont toujours aimé l'argent[19] | World Publishing Beijing | ||
| 2017 | Aleijadinho – Le Brésil est un sculpteur métisse[20] (in French) | Les Presses du réel | ||
| 2018 | Ai Weiwei Fan-Tan | Manuella | ||
| 2022 | Serra/Seurat. Drawings | Guggenheim Bilbao | ISBN 978-84-18895-60-9 | |
| 2023 | Histoires extraordinaires de l'art à l'hôtel Drouot - De Vermeer à Louise Bourgeois (in French) | Flammarion | ISBN 9782080428080 |