Mission

To celebrate the memory of Jean-Francois Prat, who died on 26 March 2011, and who was a passionate art collector, the partners of the law firm Bredin Prat in Paris, which he co-founded, and his family, wanted to pay tribute to him by creating a contemporary art prize.

Created in 2012, the Jean-Francois Prat Prize seeks to promote mainly contemporary painting and to support emerging artists of any nationality.
The Jean-Francois PRAT Prize is a program from the Bredin Prat non-profit Fund for Contemporary Art.

The Jean-Francois Prat Prize consists of :

An award of €20,000 for the winner and €2,000 for each of the other two shortlisted artists
Publication of a catalogue each year on the work of the three selected artists
A two-month exhibition of the works of the shortlisted artists in the firm’s offices in Paris
A cocktail during which the Prize is presented, with guests from the Press, the Parisian art world and key business figures invited by the law firm Bredin Prat.

ARTISTIC COMMITTEE & ARTIST SELECTION PROCESS

The Jean-Francois Prat Prize is by invitation only. The Prize is not based on any call for proposals or open application for artists or art galleries to submit works.
Every year, a Selection Committee seeks out artists from around the world then contacts directly the shortlisted
artists and galleries.

The Selection Committee of the Prize includes specialists from different areas of the art world:

– Marie-Aline PRAT, art historian and author of several books and articles on art
– Anaël PIGEAT, art critic, editor at large of The Art Newspaper France
– Odile BURLURAUX, curator at the Musée d’Art Moderne de la ville de Paris
– Frédéric BRIÈRE, executive director of the Bredin Prat Foundation for contemporary art
– Frédéric BONNET, art critic and independent curator

The Jean-Francois Prat Prize thanks collector Hervé ACKER (2012-2013) and senior curator
Juliette LAFFON (2012-2016) who contributed to the Selection Committee during many years.

Each January the Selection Committee presents an initial pre-selection of eight artists to the Bredin Prat partners, who are not art professionals and who issue their opinion. In February, the committee deliberates and decides on the three shortlisted artists for the year. The Jury then votes to select the winning artist.

JURY

Le Jury du Prix Jean-François PRAT est constitué :

The members of the Jury for the Jean-Francois Prat Prize are:

– the person chairing the Prize that year
– the partners of the law firm Bredin Prat
– the members of the Artistic Committee
– the former supporting curators for the artists from the two latest editions of the Prize

Each year, in the last week of June, in a plenary session “in camera”, the chairperson and the Jury hear three representatives from the art world (a curator, an art historian and an art critic) who present, defend and put into perspective the work of the artist they have chosen to support.

The Jury then votes in a secret ballot for the winning artist. The winner is announced that very same day from among the three presented by the Artistic Committee

CHAIRPERSON / HEAD OF THE JURY

Chaque année, un «parrain» de premier plan issu du monde de l’art, de la culture ou des affaires vient présider la séance, auditionner les rapporteurs, procéder au vote et remettre le Prix à l’artiste lauréat lors du cocktail qui réunit la presse, les personnalités du monde de l’art, de la culture et des affaires dans les locaux du Cabinet Bredin Prat à Paris.

Each year a leading specialist from the world of art, culture or business chairs the specific year’s edition of the Prize, hears the representatives from the three specialist fields, votes and presents the Prize to the winning artist
at the cocktail held at the offices of the law firm Bredin Prat in Paris to which the Press and leading figures
from the world of art, culture and business are invited.

Since the Prize’s inception in 2012, the following key people have honoured the Jean-Francois Prat Prize
by accepting to chair an edition:

Jean-Paul AGON, President of the Society of Friends of the Musée d’Art Moderne de Paris, President of L’Oréal group (2024)
Manuel BORJA-VILLEL, curator of the Sao Paolo Biennale & former director of the Musée Reina Sofía Museum (2023)
Patrizia SANDRETTO RE REBAUDENGO, Collector and President of Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo (2022)
Charles-Henri FILIPPI, Collector et co-président of Lazard Frères (2021)
Marie-Claude BEAUD, Director of the Nouveau Musée National de Monaco (NMNM) for the 9th edition (2020)
Bernard BLISTENE, Executive Director of the Musée National d’Art Moderne (MNAM) – Centre Pompidou for the 8th edition (2019)
Marc SIMONCINI, Collector and serial entrepreneur, for the 7th edition (2018)
Florence DERIEUX, Curator at large, Centre Pompidou, for the 6th edition (2017)
Bertrand LAVIER, Artist, for the 5th edition (2016)
Caroline BOURGEOIS, Chief Curator of the Pinault Collection, for the 4th edition (2015)
Christian LANGLOIS-MEURINNE, President of the Society of Friends of the Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, Managing General Partner of IDI, for the 3rd edition (2014)
Jennifer FLAY, Director of the FIAC Paris art fair, for the 2nd edition (2013)
Jean-Jacques AILLAGON, former French Culture Minister, former President of the Pompidou Centre and of the Château, Museum and National Heritage of Versailles, for the first edition (2012)

THE BREDIN PRAT FOUNDATION FOR CONTEMPORARY ART

Anyone who has access to works of art as part of their daily professional or private lives is very fortunate. The Bredin Prat Foundation for Contemporary Art is a non-profit organization (legally, in French, a “Fonds de dotation”), serving the general public interest, with the aim of supporting, promoting, and developing all forms of contemporary artistic creation, as well as artistic heritage.

The main objectives of the Foundation are:

To discover and support emerging artists from around the globe through the Jean-François Prat Prize, which encourages contemporary painting every year

To build an international contemporary art collection based on bidimensional works (paintings and photos) and open it to the general public.

The Foundation’s collection focuses on “what makes a picture”: paintings and photographic works. It mainly supports contemporary painting and, to a slightly lesser degree, photographic works, notably art photography.

The collection is international: it allows artists of different nationalities to interact and familiarize themselves with the specificities of the French art scene and to exhibit their work in France; at the same time, it allows French artists to gain access to the international art scene. The collection therefore strengthens ties between the French and international art scenes.

The Foundation acquires works of art directly, but also displays artworks on loan from its members, free of charge.

The Bredin Prat Foundation seeks to reach a wide public by showing its collection for free, with guided tours at the premises of its headquarters at 53 quai d’Orsay in Paris by appointment four to six times a year, through online interactive access via its website, and through social media by presenting its latest acquisitions, exhibitions, and events. It also welcomes researchers, and disseminates its collection through temporary loans, free of charge, to public and private institutions.

+ See more about the Bredin Prat Foundation

Since 2020, the Bredin Prat Foundation has joined the TRAMPOLINE association which brings together private cultural non profit structures and federates their efforts to carry out collective action in favor of the international influence of the French artistic scene. Its members work together to support and promote visual artists in France and abroad. TRAMPOLINE is a non-profit association, initiated under the leadership of Laurent Dumas, created in 2019 by the corporate foundations PERNOD RICARD, EMERIGE, FRANCÈS, LAFAYETTE ANTICIPATION, the Fondation des Artistes, the Hélène & Edouard LECLERC endowment fund for culture, ADAGP. in addition to the founding members, the Comité Professionnel des Galeries d’Art, ART EXPLORA Foundation, BREDIN PRAT Foundation, BULLUKIAN Foundation, MARTELL Corporate Foundation, NEUFLIZE OBC Corporate Foundation, THALIE Foundation, SAM Art Projects are now members of TRAMPOLINE.

+ See more about Trampoline org supporting the French art scene

FOUNDING SPONSOR

Bredin Prat, one of the top French business law firms, is reputed for providing advice of the highest quality
and sophistication in its selected practice areas, namely: corporate law / mergers and acquisitions, securities
and financial law, international litigation and arbitration, tax law, competition and European law, financing
and banking law, restructuring and insolvency, employment law and public law.

Founded in 1966, the firm was first renowned for its expertise in general litigation and arbitration before focussing more on corporate law in the 1980s. Over the last thirty years, Bredin Prat has indeed worked on most of the major public M&A transactions in France, both domestic and cross-border, including high-profile privatizations
and landmark contested takeovers.

With offices in Paris and Brussels, Bredin Prat has succeeded in expanding while at the same time respecting
the firm’s culture and staying committed to excellence. The firm now has 170 lawyers and its success and particularity is due to the intense personal involvement and reputation of its 47 partners who are unanimously recognized
for their expertise.

At an international level, Bredin Prat has developed a unique approach enabling it to work on all cross-border files with international integrated teams of lawyers from firms who are among the best in their jurisdiction.
The Best Friends network, created ten years ago, comprises, in Europe, the law firms Bonelli Erede (Italy), Bredin Prat (France), De Brauw Blackstone Westbroek (Netherlands), Hengeler Mueller (Germany), Slaughter and May (United Kingdom) and Uría Ménendez (Spain). The Best Friends currently have 32 offices
and more than 2,500 lawyers worldwide.

Further information on the law firm Bredin Prat can be found at www.bredinprat.fr

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The Jean-Francois Prat Prize thanks the publisher DALLOZ, which each year dedicates a special edition of
its famous red-covered French Civil Code to the winning artist, and Frederic BRIÈRE for his contribution in the Prize development to make it growing from inception to what it is today.