SPEAKING OF ART WITH RAYMOND NASHER
8/14/2006 12:00:00 AM
Dallas, TX (August 10, 2006) – Discover the stories behind the sculptures in a new radio series debuting on WRR 101.1 FM beginning Monday, August 28. Speaking of Art with Raymond Nasher will air Monday through Friday during Classic Café at 12:45 pm and feature 2-minute interview segments with Nasher Sculpture Center Founder Raymond Nasher.
With interviews conducted by Dr. Edmund P. “Ted” Pillsbury, Ph.D of Heritage Auction Galleries, Speaking of Art will reveal Raymond Nasher’s fascinating journey in creating one of the world’s foremost collection of modern and contemporary sculpture and his vision for the Nasher Sculpture Center. From his initial appreciation of and love for art to the individual stories of discovery behind each modern masterpiece, these candid, thought-provoking interviews will take you along the road of discovery and into the heart of a collector.
Additional interviews and video of the collection will be available at the Heritage Auction website at www.HA.com.
About Raymond D. Nasher:
Raymond D. Nasher, prominent real estate developer and banker, is Chairman of The Nasher Foundation. He is also a renowned world leader in the arts. The Raymond and Patsy Nasher Collection is one of the most extensive and important collections of modern and contemporary sculpture in private hands today.
Mr. Nasher was one of the first real estate developers in the United States to place art, primarily sculpture, in commercial retail complexes. He did this believing that art nurtures intellectual and aesthetic curiosity and enhances the overall experience of every environment. He designed his first retail shopping center in Dallas, NorthPark Center, with space to display large sculptures. NorthPark Center has won architectural and design awards, and has become a model for other developers throughout the world.
Mr. Nasher has played a leading role in the development and growth of many of the major arts organizations in Dallas. He contributed to increased business support of the arts in Dallas by establishing the Dallas Business Committee for the Arts. He is a member of the national Business Committee for the Arts and has been a member of numerous performing arts and visual arts boards in the Dallas area. He was appointed to serve on the President’s Committee on the Arts and the Humanities. He has served on the Texas Commission on the Arts and was formerly the Ambassador of Cultural Affairs for the City of Dallas. The Nasher Company has received Business in the Arts Awards in recognition of its outstanding commitment to business-arts alliances.
Mr. Nasher has also served in several governmental positions, including Chairman, National Commission of Urban Development; and member of the President’s Commission on Urban Housing. He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and the National Council of the U.N. Association of the USA. He is the 2003 recipient of the H. Neil Mallon Award of the World Affairs Council of Greater Dallas.
In 2003, Mr. Nasher opened the Nasher Sculpture Center in Dallas. Personally financed by Mr. Nasher, the highly acclaimed Center consists of a 55,000-square foot building designed by architect Renzo Piano and a 1.5 acre garden designed by landscape architect Peter Walker. He also established a Sculpture Garden at the Peggy Guggenheim Collection in Venice and The Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University, where he graduated with a B.A. in 1943.
Edmund P. “Ted” Pillsbury, Ph.D:
Dr. Pillsbury is an internationally-known scholar and former Yale University curator and 18 year Kimbell Art Museum Director.
Dr. Pillsbury is one of America's foremost museum professionals who helped build the art collections of the renowned Kimbell as well as the Paul Mellon Collection of British Art and served as the founding director of the Bellagio Gallery of Fine Art housing the Steve Wynn collection. He has an international reputation as a connoisseur, scholar, and arts administrator.
Among his many outstanding accomplishments, Dr. Pillsbury is a member of the prestigious American Academy of Arts and Sciences. In 1991 New York Times art critic John Russell characterized Dr. Pillsbury as "one of the most gifted men in the American museum profession." A graduate of Yale University, Dr. Pillsbury holds a Ph.D. in Italian Renaissance Art from the University of London's Courtauld Institute of Art. His acclaimed former management positions include Director of the Yale Center for British Art and Chief Executive Officer of the Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art in London. He served as Director of the Meadows Museum and Professor of Art History at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, and is currently a Research Professor at the University of Texas at Dallas, a position he holds part-time.
A native of Minneapolis, he is the great-grandson of the founder of the Pillsbury Milling Company, today known to consumers as the Pillsbury bakery division of General Mills, Inc.
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, Miro, 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.
Contact:
Kristen Gibbins
Communications Manager
Nasher Sculpture Center
214.242.5177
kgibbins@nashersculpturecenter.org