Nasher Sculpture Center

Opened in 2003, the Nasher Sculpture Center is a museum in Dallas, Texas, that houses the Patsy and Raymond Nasher collection of modern and contemporary sculpture. It is located on a 2.4-acre (9,700 m2) site adjacent to the Dallas Museum of Art in the Dallas Arts District. Founding Patsy and Raymond Nasher began collecting sculpture in the 1950s. Together they formed a comprehensive collection of masterpieces by Harry Bertoia, Constantin Brâncuși, Alexander Calder, Raymond Duchamp-Villon, Paul Gauguin, Willem de Kooning, Mark di Suvero, Alberto Giacometti, Barbara Hepworth, Ellsworth Kelly, Henri Matisse, Joan Miró, Henry Moore, Claes Oldenburg, Pablo Picasso, Auguste Rodin, Richard Serra, and David Smith, among others. 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. The museum has two levels: the ground level houses four galleries, institute offices, and a boardroom. 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. 360 Speaker Series: Artists, Critics, Curators 2016 Speakers Ann Veronica Janssens / Piero Golia with Ann Goldstein / Mai-Thu Perret / Martha Thorne / Agents, Advisors, Devils and Apostates: A New Art World, Panel Discussion / Plaster: Medium and Process, Panel Discussion / Kathryn Andrews / Michael Dean / Rachel Rose 2015 Speakers Melvin Edwards / Stories from the French Sculpture Census / Iván Navarro / Jonathan Hammer / Phyllida Barlow with Tyler Green / Philip Beesley / Giuseppe Penone / Alex Israel / Edmund de Waal 2014 Speakers Thomas Heatherwick / Anna-Bella Papp / Sarah Thorton / Tony Tasset / David Bates / Not Vital / Bettina Pousttchi / Mark Grotjahn / Tod Lippy / Liz Glynn 2013 Speakers 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 2012 Speakers Elliott Hundley / Tony Feher / Trenton Doyle Hancock / Erick Swenson / Ernesto Neto / Joseph Havel / The Art Guys / Kathryn Andrews / Lawrence Weiner / Catherine Craft / Eva Rothschild 2011 Speakers 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 2010 Speakers Michael Craig-Martin/ Adam Silverman and Nader Tehrani / William Jeffett / Allegra Pesenti / Linda Ridgway / Evan Holloway / Rick Lowe / Richard R. Brettell and Joachim Pissarro / Michael Corris / Antony Gormley / Alexander Calder and Contemporary Art Panel Exhibitions "Nic Nicosia; Everyday Surreal" May 16, 2026 - August 16, 2026 Lynda Benglis: May 21, 2022 - September 18, 2022 Magali Reus: A Sentence in Soil: May 14, 2022 - October 9, 2022 Harry Bertoia: Sculpting Mid-Century Modern Life: January 29, 2022 – April 24, 2022 Carol Bove: Collage Sculptures: October 16, 2021 – January 9, 2022 Betye Saar: Call and Response: September 25, 2021 – January 2, 2022 Guerrilla Girls: Takeover: May 12, 2021 – October 25, 2021 Nasher Mixtape: February 6, 2021 – September 26, 2021 Barry X Ball: Remaking Sculpture: January 25, 2020 – January 3, 2021 Elmgreen & Dragset: Sculptures: September 14, 2019 – January 5, 2020 Sheila Hicks: May 11, 2019 – August 18, 2019 Sterling Ruby: Sculpture: February 2, 2019 – April 21, 2019 The Nature of Arp: September 15, 2018 – January 6, 2019 First Sculpture: Handaxe to Figure Stone: January 27, 2018 – April 28, 2018 Tom Sachs: Tea Ceremony: September 16, 2017 – January 7, 2018 Roni Horn: May 20, 2017 – August 20, 2017 Richard Serra: Prints: January 28, 2017 – April 30, 2017 Sightings: Michael Dean: October 22, 2016 – February 5, 2017 Kathryn Andrews: Run for President: September 10, 2016 – January 8, 2017 Joel Shapiro: May 7, 2016 – August 21, 2016 Doris Salcedo: Plegaria Muda: February 27, 2016 – April 17, 2016 Sightings: Mai-Thu Perret: March 12, 2016 – July 17, 2016 Ann Veronica Janssens: January 23, 2016—April 17, 2016 Sightings: Alex Israel: October 24, 2015 — January 31, 2016 Piero Golia: Chalet Dallas: October 3, 2015 — February 7, 2016 Giuseppe Penone: Being the River, Repeating the Forest: September 19, 2015—January 10, 2016 Phyllida Barlow tryst: May 30, 2015—August 30, 2015 Melvin Edwards: Five Decades: January 31, 2015 – May 10, 2015 Sightings: Anna-Bella Papp: October 24, 2014 – January 18, 2015 Provocations: The Architecture and Design of Heatherwick Studio: September 13, 2014 – January 4, 2015 Mark Grotjahn Sculpture: May 31, 2014 – August 17, 2014 Sightings: Bettina Pousttchi: April 12, 2014 – August 17, 2014 David Bates: February 9, 2014 – May 11, 2014 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. 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. 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. (2016) – Doris Salcedo 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. (2017) – Pierre Huyghe 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. (2018) – Theaster Gates 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. (2019) – Isa Genzken 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. (2020–2021) – Michael Rakowitz 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. (2022) – Nairy Baghramian 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. (2023) – Senga Nengudi 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. 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. See also List of buildings and structures in Dallas, Texas References External links Official website ArchitectureWeek: article about the Nasher Sculpture Center design Archived October 5, 2009, at the Wayback Machine