Nasher Sculpture Center, Dallas

The Dallas Museum of Art and The Nasher Sculpture Center combined facilities to present an exhibit on Henri Matisse recently. We spent a wonderful afternoon enjoying the artwork of this well known French artist (1869-1954).

The Nasher Sculpture Center was built on the collections of Patsy and Ray Nasher, who began to collect pre-colombian art from ancient Latin America in the 1950's and modern sculptures in the mid-1960's.

As we continued with our viewing of the Matisse exhibit, we entered spacious galleries with huge windows overlooking the beautiful landscaped grounds and lovely sculpture garden.

Nasher's dream was 'to create an outdoor 'roofless' museum to serve as a peaceful retreat for reflection of art and nature and as a home for his 20th century sculpture'. A sculpture garden can be visited, which is located outdoors at the rear of the museum. Also, chamber music concerts are scheduled each month.

A few of the artists/sculptors represented are:

Alberto Giacometti
Paul Gauguin
Mex Ernst
Edgar Degas
Henri Matisse
Joan Miro
Pablo Picasso
August Rodin

Hours are Tuesday-Wednesday 11am-5pm; Thursday 11am- FREE 6pm-11pm; Friday-Sunday 11am-5pm, closed on Mondays, Fourth of July, Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year.

Admission is $10 for adults; $7 for seniors age 65 and up; $5 for students; under 12 free.

The Nasher Sculpture Center has various works from world-renowed artists such as Picasso, Miro, Liechtenstein & Rodin. The facility itself is not very large, but well worth the visit. The garden has most of the sculptures, strategically placed among beautiful landscaping & fountains and it is even more dramatic in it's location against the Dallas skyline (see pic on Intro Dallas page). We were lucky to see this on a beautiful day; it's serene beauty makes it an exhibit not to be missed!

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The gardens are located opposite the Trammel Crowe Gallery, in downtown Dallas. Raymond and Patsy Nasher began their Collection more than fifty years ago. They first became interested in Pre-Columbian art back in 1950 and bought the first works in their sizable collection of objects from ancient Latin America. They went on to purchase other ethnographic and archaeological works as well as acquire a number of important American modernist works. The centre opened in October 2003 and there are around 25 large-scale sculptures from the Nasher Collection. Some of the pieces have been on view in Florence, Italy.

This sculpture down by the fountains is called ‘Squares with Two Circles I(Monolith) by Barbara Hepworth and was designed and cast in 1963-64. This was one of the earliest pieces that Nasher bought.

There are three central pavilions on the main floor for displays taking up 10,000 sq ft of space. At the time I visit, there was a Picaso display being exhibited in one of the galleries. There is also a café and a shop on this level. The glass doors at the back take you out into the garden.

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The garden is set on one and a half-acres with stoned walkways, pools and fountains and many different types of trees as well as benches for sitting and admiring the sculptures. The back end of the property are terraced with spring flowers.

There is also James Turrell’s ‘Tending’. This is like a room with a square cut out in the ceiling for viewing the sky. There are seats all around the walls for just viewing and apparently at sunrise and sunset when the sky colourations changes rapidly, the sky through the opening, edged by the sharp rim edges, seems to take on extraordinary colours and appears dense and flat.

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This is a really huge exhibit and is animated. The hammer arm is motorised and moves up and down. The sculpture is supposed to idolise the worker and the drudgery and heroism of labour. The artist is Jonathan Borofsky and was created 1984-85.

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This one is large and kind of bizaare looking with these 36 life-size headless statues. The artist, Magadelena Abakanowicz was born in Poland during WWII and lived during the invasions of Germany and the Soviet Union. She has said that 'A crowd is the most cruel because it begins to act like a brainless organism'. Each of these figures are different on closer inspection and you can walk between them all.

Kind of a fun looking piece but a little grotesque as well. Jean Debuffet's idea evolved from his Houloupe series which developed in the 1960's with its bold colour and broad wavy lines. It was initially carved out of Styrofoam and only 5ft tall but this version was made using epoxy resin and enlarged quite a bit.

I loved this piece, it was cute and right outside the main building. I was originally designed by Joan Miro 1944-46 and enlarged in 1966-67. The artists engages in surrealism and the exploration of dreams, memory and the subconscious. The piece suggests many forms, from bird to animal with the horns of a bull on the head, to even a pagan fertility idol. Its well rounded and made of bronze.

This bronze sculpture designed by George Segal, comes from a scene in everyday life where people are busy and rushing in a mindless fashion in their daily routines. The six figures resonates Rodin's famous sculpture 'The Burghers of Calais' which is a monument to the French noblemen who sacrificed themselves to British invaders in 1347 so that the rest of the town might be protected.