ON TOUR WITH RENZO PIANO AND BUILDING WORKSHOP: SELECTED PROJECTS
2/13/2006 12:00:00 AM
The Nasher Sculpture Center will present the traveling exhibition On Tour with Renzo Piano and Building Workshop: Selected Projects from May 13 – August 13, 2006. The exhibition will highlight the work of Renzo Piano, the Pritzker Prize-winning architect of the Nasher Sculpture Center and numerous other international projects.
Showcasing three decades of inspiring Piano architectural structures from around the globe—some completed, others still in progress, the exhibition will explore the design process, philosophy, and creative work of Piano and his team, and feature both current and recently completed architectural projects. With sketches, models, drawings, dossiers, photographs, blueprints, notes, films, and architectural details displayed as though a visitor had just walked into the architect’s studio, the installation will provide an insider’s view of the working method of the Renzo Piano Building Workshop.
Ten “project tables” provide an in-depth look at major Piano and Renzo Piano Building Workshop projects, including: the Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris; the Menil Collection Museum, Houston; the mile-long Kansai International Airport, Osaka, Japan; the Jean-Marie Tjibaou Cultural Center, Noumea, New Caledonia; the Beyeler Foundation Museum, Basel, Switzerland; the Renzo Piano Building Workshop, Genoa, Italy; and the Nasher Sculpture Center. An innovative installation approach of hanging models, photographs, small elements from buildings, and conceptual studies throughout the gallery spaces provides visual excitement and helps absorb viewers into a vivid experience of the projects.
The exhibition will showcase Piano’s innovative construction methods, his use of new and unexpected building materials, his attention to the play of light and the natural illumination of buildings, and his sensitivity to the ecology and environment of each site. Examples of recurrent themes in Piano’s designs—lightness and transparency, alliances between art and technology, the intensive relationship of architecture and the natural environment, and sensitivity to the nature of each site—are featured throughout the exhibition. Piano describes the retrospective as “a sort of traveling circus, a way to present architecture as a metaphor for the adventures of life, but also as an art.”
This exhibition was organized by the Renzo Piano Building Workshop. The Nasher Sculpture Center will be the final U.S. venue for On Tour with Renzo Piano, which included stops at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (March 13 – October 2, 2005) and The High Museum, Atlanta (November 12, 2005 – April 2, 2006).
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 two-acre sculpture garden.
The Nasher Sculpture Center is a longtime dream of Raymond Nasher and his late wife, Patsy, 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 café, and a store. The Nasher Sculpture Center is open Tuesday through Sunday from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. and on Thursday from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m.
Admission is $10 for adults, $7 for seniors, $5 for students, and free for members and children 12 and under. Discount tickets are available at Central Market beginning May 13, 2006.
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For more information, please contact:
Kristen Gibbins
Nasher Sculpture Center
214.242.5177
kgibbins@nashersculpturecenter.org
www.NasherSculptureCenter.org