NASHER SCULPTURE CENTER PRESENTS WOMAN: THE ART OF GASTON LACHAISE
9/7/2007 12:00:00 AM
Woman: The Art of Gaston Lachaise Exhibition
First Major Museum Exhibition of the Artist’s Work in Texas. Opens November 17, 2007.
Dallas, Texas -- The Nasher Sculpture Center will present Woman: The Art of Gaston Lachaise from November 17, 2007- February 24, 2008. Featuring over 50 sculptures, including 8 monumental works, drawn from the collection of the Lachaise Foundation, Woman: The Art of Gaston Lachaise will present a broad range of the artist’s sculptural production and highlight his idealized vision of the female form.
Transcendent, beatific, and powerful, the female figures in Woman: The Art of Gaston Lachaise reflect his admiration for Ancient Egyptian, Hindu, and Stone Age sculptures of female deities. They also evince a reverence for the modern American woman, and one in particular: Isabel Dutaud Nagle, the love who served as his single guiding inspiration throughout his career. Writing of his work and her tremendous influence, Lachaise recounted “At twenty in Paris, I met a young American person who immediately became the primary inspiration which awakened my vision and the leading influence that has directed my forces. Throughout my career, as an artist, I refer to this person by the word ‘Woman.’”
Lachaise’s pursuit of Isabel and the ideal she represented brought him to Boston and New York, where he established himself in the studio of the prominent American sculptor, Paul Manship, and became an integral figure in the burgeoning avant-garde. Several busts in the exhibition document his friendships with artists and literary figures such as Edgar Varèse, Alfred Stieglitz, and e.e. cummings. His sculptures of the mythical ‘Woman,’ robust, sensual, and curvaceous, drew praise for modernizing the concept of the ancient idol. Many of his time found them shocking. Much of his art was not shown until the 1960’s and even then the public was surprised by his radical and dramatic portrayal of the female form.
When he died prematurely in 1935, Gaston Lachaise was considered by many the pre-eminent sculptor in the United States. His unique and groundbreaking work had just been honored that year in a solo exhibition at The Museum of Modern Art in New York, the first that institution had afforded to any living American sculptor. Now his sculpture graces the collections of prominent museums across the country, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Museum of Modern Art, New York, the Art Institute of Chicago, and the Raymond and Patsy Nasher Collection. “Lachaise’s iconic work, Elevation (1912-27), was given pride of place in the entrance of the Nasher home,” notes Jed Morse, the Nasher Sculpture Center’s Acting Chief Curator. “Mr. Nasher was very excited about the possibility of presenting this exhibition at the Nasher Sculpture Center, and he would be pleased to know that it has come to fruition.” Nasher Sculpture Center Founder Raymond D. Nasher passed away earlier this year. Woman: The Art of Gaston Lachaise is the first major museum retrospective of the artist’s work to be shown in Texas.
The exhibition was organized by the Lachaise Foundation, Boston. The exhibition tour is organized and managed by Landau Traveling Exhibitions, Los Angeles. A lavishly illustrated color catalogue entitled Gaston Lachaise 1882–1935 accompanies the exhibition and features new scholarly essays by Jean Clair, Director of the Musée Picasso, Paris, Hilton Kramer, noted American art historian and critic, and Paula R. Hornbostel, Lachaise Foundation trustee; never-before published personal photographs by the artist; Louise Bourgeois’s provocative essay on Lachaise from the April 1992 issue of Artforum; and Lachaise’s own A Comment on My Sculpture from 1928.
About the Nasher Sculpture Center:
Open since October 2003, the Nasher Sculpture Center is dedicated to the display and study of modern and contemporary sculpture. The Center is located on a 2.4 acre site adjacent to the Dallas Museum of Art in the heart of the Dallas Arts District. Renzo Piano, a world-renowned architect and winner of the prestigious Pritzker Prize in 1998, is the architect of the Center’s 55,000 square foot building. Piano worked in collaboration with landscape architect Peter Walker on the design of the 1.4-acre sculpture garden.
The Nasher Sculpture Center was the longtime dream of the late Raymond and Patsy Nasher, who together formed one of the finest collections of modern and contemporary sculpture in the world. The Raymond and Patsy Nasher Collection includes masterpieces by Calder, de Kooning, di Suvero, Giacometti, Hepworth, Kelly, Matisse, Miró, Moore, Picasso, Rodin, and Serra, among others, and continues to grow and evolve.
The Nasher Sculpture Center presents rotating exhibitions of works from the Nasher Collection as well as special exhibitions drawn from other museums and private collections. In addition to indoor gallery space, the Center contains an auditorium, education and research facilities, a cafe, and a store.
The Nasher Sculpture Center is open Tuesday through Sunday from 11am to 5 pm and Thursday from 11am to 9 pm. The Center also remains open until 11 pm during Saturday Night in the City, which takes place on the first Saturday of every month. Admission is $10 for adults, $7 for seniors, $5 for students, and free for members and children 12 and under. For more information, visit www.NasherSculptureCenter.org.
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For more information and photos, please contact:
Ashley Marshall
The Richards Group
214-891-2954 (work)
214-336-0044 (cell)
ashley_marshall@richards.com