In 1997, Raymond Nasher acquired a plot of land in downtown Dallas across the street from the Dallas Museum of Art and hired architect Renzo Piano to design the Nasher Sculpture Center. The Nasher Foundation funded the entire $70 million cost of designing and constructing the museum, which includes indoor and outdoor galleries. The Sculpture Center opened in 2003 and features a regularly changing exhibition of works from the Raymond and Patsy Nasher Collection. By placing the facility on what was formerly part of the old Caruth family farm of c. 1850, Ray Nasher began the realization of the Arts District in Dallas, which has since been enhanced by the construction of the Winspear Opera House and the Wyly Theater.
Architecture and garden
Renzo Piano, winner of the Pritzker Prize in 1998, is the architect of the Center's 55,000-square-foot (5,100 m2) building; he had been selected after Nasher met him at the opening of the Beyeler Foundation in Basel, Switzerland, in 1997. Piano has designed several critically acclaimed art museums; foremost among them are the Beyeler Museum in Basel, the Menil Collection in Houston, and Georges Pompidou Centre in Paris (in collaboration with Richard Rogers). He has been praised as an architect who has the genius to meld art, architecture, and advanced engineering to create some of the most remarkable museums in the world.
Piano worked in collaboration with landscape architect Peter Walker of PWP Landscape Architecture on the design of the 2-acre (8,100 m2) Garden. Walker has exerted a significant impact on the field of landscape architecture over a four-decade career. The scope of Walker's landscape projects is expansive and varied. It ranges from small gardens to new cities, corporate headquarters and academic campuses to urban plazas.
The building was constructed by The Beck Group, which also served as associate architect.
The facility opened in 2003 in a 55,000-square-foot building on a 2.4-acre site adjacent to the Dallas Museum of Art. Reflective glare of the nearby Museum Tower, constructed in 2012, comes in through the glass roof, putting portions of the collection at risk of damage. Artist James Turrell considered his work Tending (Blue) to be effectively destroyed by the tower's intrusion on its view, and the museum closed the artwork's chamber to the public at his request.[1]
The museum has two levels: the ground level houses four galleries, institute offices, and a boardroom.[2] The garden terraces downward to the auditorium, creating an open-air theater.
Program
The Nasher Sculpture Center features rotating exhibitions drawn from the Nasher Collection as well as special exhibitions in its indoor and outdoor galleries. Among the major exhibitions organized by the Nasher are Matisse: Painter as Sculptor, the first Matisse sculpture retrospective in the U.S. in 20 years; Tony Cragg: Seeing Things, the first major U.S. museum exhibition of the artist in 20 years; and Variable States: Intention, Appearance, and Interpretation in Modern Sculpture, an exhibition and symposium on sculpture conservation organized in conjunction with the Getty. The Nasher Sculpture Center has also presented Jaume Plensa: Genus and Species; Alexander Calder and Contemporary Art: Form, Balance, Joy; and Ken Price Sculpture: A Retrospective.
Monthly events include Target First Saturdays for children and families, Til Midnight featuring Al Fresco dining, twilight strolls, bands and movies, and the NasherSalon series which welcomes distinguished speakers for an evening of discourse on art, architecture, and other cultural topics of interest. The Nasher Sculpture Center also participates in the Block Party Series together with the Dallas Museum of Art, the Crow Museum of Asian Art, and others in the Dallas Arts District.[3]
Mark Dion / Ken Price Sculpture Panel / Heather Cook / Matthew Collings / Nathan Mabry / Liz Larner / Katharina Grosse / Lewis Kachur / Analia Saban / Return to Earth Symposium / Nasher XChange Panel / Make Art with Purpose Panel / Charles Long with Tyler Green
Charles Renfro / Jessica Holmes/ Alfredo Jaar / A Conversation on Statuesque / Charles Long / Aaron Curry and Thomas Houseago / Annette Lawrence / Heather Rowe / Tony Cragg / Diana Al-Hadid / Lawrence Weschler/ Dore Ashton with Michael Corris
Return to Earth: September 21, 2013 – January 19, 2014
Katharina Grosse: WUNDERBLOCK: June 1, 2013 – September 1, 2013
Ken Price: A Retrospective: February 9, 2013 – May 12, 2013
Rediscoveries: Modes of Making in Modern Sculpture: September 29, 2012 – January 13, 2013
Sculpture in So Many Words: Text Pieces 1960–1980: September 29, 2012 – January 13, 2013
Ernesto Neto: Cuddle on the Tightrope: May 12, 2012 – September 9, 2012
Sightings: Eric Swenson: April 14, 2012 – September 9, 2012
Sightings: Diana Al-Hadid: October 22, 2011 – January 15, 2012
Elliot Hundley: The Bacchae: January 28, 2012 – April 22, 2012
Tony Cragg: Seeing Things: September 10, 2011 – January 8, 2012
Sightings: Martin Creed: March 26, 2011 – August 21, 2011
Alexander Calder and Contemporary Art: Form, Balance, Joy: December 11, 2010 – March 6, 2011
Sightings: Alyson Shotz: October 1, 2010 – January 2, 2011
Revelation: The Art of James Magee: September 4 – November 28, 2010
Rachel Whiteread Drawings: May 22 – August 15, 2010
Jaume Plensa: Genus and Species: January 30 – May 2, 2010
The Art of Architecture: Foster + Partners: September 26, 2009 – January 10, 2010
George Segal: Street Scenes: January 24 – April 5, 2009
In Pursuit of the Masters: Stories from the Raymond and Patsy Nasher Collection: September 20, 2008 – January 4, 2009
Jacques Lipchitz: A Gift from the Artist's Estate: June 21 – September 7, 2008
Beyond the Grasp: Sculpture Transcending the Physical: March 15 – August 31, 2008
Woman: The Art of Gaston Lachaise: November 17, 2007 – February 17, 2008
Matisse: Painter as Sculptor: January 21 – April 29, 2007
On Tour with Renzo Piano Building Workshop: Selected Projects: May 13 – August 213, 2006
The Women of Giacometti: January 14 – April 19, 2006
David Smith: Drawing + Sculpting: April 16 – July 17, 2005
Frank Stella: Painting in Three Dimensions: January 8 – April 3, 2005
Bodies Past and Present: The Figurative Tradition in the Nasher Collection: September 18, 2004 – August 2005
Variable States: Three Masterworks of Modern Sculpture: September 18, 2004 – January 2, 2005
Medardo Rosso: Second Impressions: April 3 – June 20, 2004
Picasso: The Cubist Portraits of Fernande Olivier: February 15 – May 9, 2004
From Rodin to Calder: Masterworks of Modern Sculpture from the Nasher Collection: October 20, 2003 – August 22, 2004
Nasher XChange
To celebrate its 10th anniversary, the Nasher Sculpture Center presented Nasher XChange from October 19, 2013, to February 16, 2014. Nasher Sculpture Center Director Jeremy Strick stated that Nasher XChange focused on public art, which engages the people and culture of Dallas.[25] The Nasher XChange exhibition was made possible in part by an award from the National Endowment for the Arts, Art Works, and a grant from the Texas Commission on the Arts.[26]
Nasher XChange: Moore to the Point: October 19, 2013 – February 16, 2014
Nasher XChange: CURTAINS: October 19, 2013 – February 16, 2014
Nasher XChange: Buried House: October 19, 2013 – February 16, 2014
Nasher XChange: X: October 19, 2013 – February 16, 2014
Nasher XChange: Fountainhead: October 19, 2013 – February 16, 2014
Nasher XChange: Trans.lation: October 19, 2013 – February 16, 2014
Nasher XChange: Black & Blue: Cultural Oasis in the Hills: October 19, 2013 – February 16, 2014
Nasher XChange: dear sunset: October 19, 2013 – February 16, 2014
Nasher XChange: Flock in Space: October 19, 2013 – February 16, 2014
Nasher XChange: Music (Everything I know I learned the day my son was born): October 19, 2013 – February 16, 2014
Nasher XChange: Through the Eyes of Allison V. Smith: October 19, 2013 – February 16, 2014
Nasher Prize
The Nasher Prize was established in April 2015. The award is dedicated exclusively to a living artist who has proven excellence in contemporary sculpture.[27]
Doris Salcedo was born in 1958 in Bogotá, Colombia, her current residence. Salcedo has created sculptures and installations that transform familiar, everyday objects into moving and powerful testimonies of loss and remembrance.[28]
Huyghe was born in 1962 in Paris, he lives and works in Chile and New York. Huyghe has profoundly expanded the parameters of sculpture through artworks encompassing a variety of materials and disciplines, bringing music, cinema, and dance into contact with biology and philosophy and incorporating time-based elements as diverse as fog, ice, parades, rituals, automata, computer programs, games, dogs, bees, and microorganisms.[29][30]
Gates was born in 1973 in Chicago, Illinois, where he continues to live and work as a professor at the University of Chicago. His work explores the material aspects of memory, history, and place.
Genzken was born in 1948 in Germany. Genzken has continually reinvented the language of sculpture by creating objects inspired by popular culture and historical events that explore the complexities of contemporary realism.
Rakowitz was born in 1973 in Long Island, New York. He is Iraqi-American and much of his work explores his identity as an American artist of Iraqi Jewish descent. His work explores the complex history between the US and Middle East, as well as cultural heritage and humanitarian crisis.
Baghramian, born 1971, is an Iranian-born German visual artist. Baghramian takes the creation and presentation of sculpture as her de facto subject yet makes works highlighting the poignant, contradictory, and sometimes humorous circumstances that can suffuse both the artistic process as well as everyday life. Over the past three decades, she has explored elements of sculptural practice and installation to create works that challenge their settings and upend expected modes of presentation as well as the architectural, sociological, political, and historical contexts that inform them.[32]
Nengudi was born in 1943 in Chicago and is known for works exploring the body, as well as for combining sculpture and performance. Nengudi rose to prominence among the Black avant-garde of the 1970s and 80s.[33]
Key people
Nasher Sculpture Center Board of Trustees
Mr. David Haemisegger, President
Mr. Stephen Stamas, Chairman
Mr. Elliot Cattarulla
Ms. Nancy Nasher Haemisegger
Mr. John G. Heimann
Dr. William Jordan
Dr. Steven A. Nash
Ms. Andrea Nasher
Mr. Jeremy Strick
The Director
Jeremy Strick, Director
Jeremy Strick has been the Director of the Nasher Sculpture Center since March 2009. Mr. Strick oversees collections, exhibitions, and operations at the 2.4 acre museum located in the heart of downtown Dallas’ Arts District.
Curators
Jed Morse, Chief Curator
Catherine Craft, Curator
Leigh Arnold, Assistant Curator
Nancy A. Nasher and David J. Haemisegger
David J. Haemisegger and Nancy A. Nasher serve on the Board of Directors of the Nasher Sculpture Center, a museum founded in 2003 by Nancy's father, Raymond D. Nasher, which houses the Raymond D. and Patsy R. Nasher Collection of Modern and Contemporary Sculpture. Nancy worked closely with her father on the creation and development of the Sculpture Center. David currently serves as President of the Nasher Sculpture Center, and is on the Finance and Audit Committees. David and Nancy serve on the Nasher Foundation Board.
