Annie Cohen-Solal

Who is Annie Cohen-Solal?

Annie Cohen-Solal is a French academic and writer. Born in pre-independence Algeria, she is part of the Jewish diaspora that left that country for France during the Algerian War of Independence. Her most famous work is a biography of Jean-Paul Sartre, Sartre: A Life, which has been translated into sixteen languages. The French edition of her book about the rise of American artists from the 19th to the 20th century, Un jour ils auront des peintres, was awarded the Prix Bernier by the Académie des Beaux-Arts.

In Spring 2010, Cohen-Solal published Leo and His Circle: The Life of Leo Castelli, a cultural biography of Leo Castelli, America’s most influential art dealer, which was awarded the ArtCurial Prize for the best book on contemporary art.

From 1989 to 1993, Cohen-Solal served as Cultural Counselor at the French Embassy in the United States. She has taught at New York University, the University of Berlin, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales in Paris. Cohen-Solal is a Professor of American studies at the Université de Caen as well as Visiting Scholar at Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore.