Sightings: Luke Fowler
May 12- August 19, 2018
First-ever sound work to be presented at the Nasher, commissioned in partnership with Lismore Castle Arts, Ireland
Nasher Sculpture Center and Lismore Castle Arts, Ireland—two institutions with unique outdoor settings for art, one a contemporary garden in a dynamic urban setting and the other a lush garden at an ancient castle in a bucolic rural setting— have jointly commissioned Luke Fowler to create a new sound sculpture for both locations. For this commission, Fowler draws on practices of focused listening and architectural acoustics to create a multi-channel sound installation. Using everyday objects and acoustic environments unique to each site, Fowler will create compositions that subtly examine the material history of the two sites and their acoustic qualities. The work premiered at Lismore in August, presented in one of the medieval defensive towers surrounding the garden. Fowler will next travel to Dallas to take recordings of objects at the site, use the recordings to create a new sonic composition, and install the new sound composition in a resonant part of the Nasher garden. The exhibition is part of the Nasher Sculpture Center’s Sightings series of smaller-scale exhibitions and installations that highlight new work of emerging or established artists.
The Nature of Arp
September 15, 2018 – January 6, 2019
The first major North American museum exhibition in three decades
The Nature of Arp provides a long-overdue look at the achievements of Jean (Hans) Arp (1886-1966), one of the most important and multifaceted artists of the modern era. As a founder of the international Dada movement during World War I, Arp pioneered the use of chance, spontaneity, and collaboration as artistic processes and subsequently developed a vocabulary of curving, organic forms that was to become the lingua franca for several generations of artists. Arp’s sculptures, begun in the early 1930s, often have no use for a pedestal, can be turned in different orientations, and seem to pulse with incipient life. In later years, he put his sculptures through complex processes of fragmentation, casting, recasting, and enlarging. Almost alone among artists of his generation, Arp worked at the forefront of abstraction as well as the Dada and Surrealist movements. The Nature of Arp will present a compelling new look at an artist whose experimental approach to creation, radical rethinking of traditional art forms, and collaborative proclivities resonate with the wide-ranging character of art today. Bringing together more than 80 objects, including sculptures, reliefs, collages, drawings, textiles, and books, The Nature of Arp will include works drawn from prominent U.S. and European museums, foundations, and private collections. Organized by the Nasher Sculpture Center, the exhibition will be accompanied by a richly illustrated catalogue including essays by several authors, including Catherine Craft, Nasher Curator and curator of the exhibition. The Nature of Arp is supported by the National Endowment for the Arts and by the Swiss Arts Council Pro Helvetia.