Nasher Sculpture Center

History


The Raymond and Patsy Nasher Collection: Timeline

1954 Ray Nasher acquires Ben Shahn’s Tennis Players.
1961-68 The Nashers’ Pre-Columbian collection grows to more than 150 objects.
1967 Patsy gives Ray Jean Arp’s Torso with Buds, their first acquisition of modern sculpture, as a birthday gift.
1968 The Nashers acquire Hepworth’s Squares with Two Circles and Moore’s Working Model for Three Piece No. 3: Vertebrae, their first large outdoor pieces.
1971 The Nashers commission Beverly Pepper’s Dallas Land Canal for NorthPark Center.
1972 Miró’s Moonbird and Calder’s Three Bollards enter the collection.
1976-78 The Nashers’ acquisitions of contemporary sculpture accelerate with major purchases of works by Judd, Caro, David Smith, Ernst, Oldenburg, Johns, Dine, Lichtenstein, Moore, Calder and others.
1978 20th Century Sculpture from the Mr. and Mrs. Raymond D. Nasher Collection exhibited at University Gallery, Southern Methodist University, Dallas, September 22 - October 22, 1978.
1979 The Nasher collection turns a corner with the addition of four Giacomettis: Venice Woman III, Bust of Diego, Diego in a Sweater and Diego in a Cloak, two Mirós: Seated Woman and Child and Caress of a Bird, and Serra’s Inverted House of Cards.
1980 The Nashers donate their collection of Guatemalan textiles to the Dallas Museum of Art.
1982 Rodin’s Eve acquired.
1983 The Nashers acquire their first Matisses: Head with Necklace and Large Seated Nude, and a Picasso, Pregnant Woman.
1985 Borofsky’s Hammering Man placed in front of NorthPark Center.
1986 The Nashers acquire their first work by Medardo Rosso, The Concierge.
1987 Picasso’s Head of Fernande acquired.
1987-89 A Century of Modern Sculpture: The Patsy and Raymond Nasher Collection, exhibited at Dallas Museum of Art, April 5 - May 31, 1987; National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., June 28, 1987 - January 3, 1988; Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia, Madrid, April 4 - June 5, 1988; Forte Belvedere, Florence, Italy, July 8 - October 16, 1988; Tel Aviv Museum of Art, January 1 - March 31, 1989.
1995 Rodin’s Age of Bronze acquired.
1996-97 A Century of Sculpture: The Nasher Collection exhibited at Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, October 26, 1996 - January 12, 1997; Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, February 6 - June 1, 1997.
2001 Looking toward the opening of the Sculpture Center, major outdoor works are added: Picasso’s cast concrete Head of Woman, di Suvero’s Eviva Amore, Shapiro’s Untitled, 1996-99, and Gormley’s Quantum Cloud XX, as well as Matisse’s only male figure, The Serf.
 

Nasher Sculpture Center: Timeline

Apr. 1997 Ray Nasher announces his intention to build the Nasher Sculpture Garden adjacent to the Dallas Museum of Art.
Oct. 1997 Nasher meets Renzo Piano at the opening of the Beyeler Foundation in Basel, Switzerland.
Fall 1997 Nasher’s vision for the project expands from a garden with a small visitor’s pavilion to a museum with an integrated garden.
Summer 1999 Ray Nasher selects Renzo Piano Building Workshop (RPBW) to design the Sculpture Center.
Summer 1999 RPBW presents its first concept: a long, low building on Harwood with a narrow garden.
Nov. 1999 RPBW presents its second concept: a two-story, five-bay building on Woodall Rodgers.
Spring 2000 Landscape Architect Peter Walker & Partners (PWP) joins the design team to collaborate on the garden design.
Jun. 2000 Renzo Piano and Peter Walker unveil their final design concept: a seamlessly integrated building and garden on Flora St.
Jan. 2001 Steven A. Nash appointed the Center’s first director.
Jan. 2001 Ground breaking ceremony. Construction begins.
Sep. 2002 Richard Serra’s 100,000 lb My Curves Are Not Mad is the first sculpture installed in the garden.
Oct. 2003 Nasher Sculpture Center opens.
2005 Duke University opens the Nasher Museum of Art, designed by architect Rafael Viñoly.
2007 Raymond Nasher passes away on March 16, shortly after returning from lecturing at the Louvre Museum in Paris.
Raymond and Patsy Nasher Raymond Nasher and David Smith's Voltri VI Architect Renzo Piano and Raymond Nasher Nasher Sculpture Center Groundbreaking Borofsky's Hammering Man at North Park Center Nasher Collection on View in Florence Henry Moore at North Park Center Henry Moore and Patsy Nasher
Raymond and Patsy Nasher
Raymond Nasher and David Smith's Voltri VI
Architect Renzo Piano and Raymond Nasher
Nasher Sculpture Center Groundbreaking
Borofsky's Hammering Man at North Park Center
Nasher Collection on View in Florence
Henry Moore at North Park Center
Henry Moore and Patsy Nasher
Raymond and Patsy Nasher