DALLAS, Texas (May 6, 2019)—The Nasher Sculpture Center announces Pairings: Sculpture in the Nasher & Rachofsky Collections on view May 11 – August 18, 2019 at the Nasher Sculpture Center and The Sensation of Space at Dallas collectors Cindy and Howard Rachofsky’s exhibition space, The Warehouse, from May 20 – November 15, 2019. The exhibitions will present, for the first time ever, works from the Nasher Collection alongside works from the Rachofsky Collection.
In 2003, in celebration of the Nasher Sculpture Center’s opening, Cindy and Howard Rachofsky, Dallas-based patrons and collectors of art made after 1945, mounted an installation of sculpture at The Rachofsky House, a space that for many years served as both a private residence and a semi-public place to view works from their collection. The Rachofsky’s installation, titled Thinking About Sculpture, complemented the Nasher opening by exploring how definitions and methods of sculpture-making evolved in the postwar years. Between the two spaces, the collections presented over 125 years of sculpture in all its various forms, from works by such modern artists as Paul Gauguin, Auguste Rodin, or Medardo Rosso at the Nasher to those by contemporary living artists, including Janine Antoni, Maurizio Cattelan, and Marc Quinn at The Rachofsky House.
Reprising and expanding on that pivotal year for sculpture in Dallas, Pairings: Sculpture in the Nasher & Rachofsky Collections and The Sensation of Space feature these two Dallas collections in dialogue throughout the Nasher galleries and The Warehouse. Presented side-by-side, works in each collection illustrate how artists continually seek out new ways to interpret, investigate, and redefine traditional notions of sculpture. The exhibitions are curated by Nasher Assistant Curator, Dr. Leigh Arnold, and Director of Educational Programming at The Warehouse, Thomas Feulmer.
“This collaboration with the Rachofsky Collection is a tremendous opportunity to showcase the breadth and depth of two extraordinary sculptural holdings in Dallas,” says Nasher Director Jeremy Strick, “and we are so grateful to the generosity of Howard and Cindy Rachofsky for making this partnership possible. Highlighting points of connection and difference, and offering new insights, the exhibition will illuminate the range of practices and possibilities that artists have explored as they put sculpture at the very forefront of contemporary art over the last century.”
“A curatorial partnership between our collection and the Nasher will provide a way to open up new conversations about the practice of sculpture, but also the practice of gathering a private collection,” says Howard Rachofsky. “The shape and mission of each collection will be described in rich and meaningful ways through this collaboration, and it’s a real pleasure for Cindy and me to see the through-lines between these objects.”
For Pairings: Sculpture in the Nasher & Rachofsky Collections at the Nasher, the Entrance Gallery displays Mario Merz’s haystack and neon sculpture facing Claes Oldenburg’s oversized stainless steel and aluminum typewriter eraser, juxtaposing Arte Povera and Pop art and the ways these two contemporaries approached similar ideas of outmoded technology and everyday objects through strikingly different materials. Selections in Gallery I, the Foyer Gallery, and Corner Gallery emphasize formal, material, and conceptual relationships among works by such artists as Sol LeWitt and Lee Ufan, whose sculptures reveal a shared interest in the exploration and activation of space; Alexander Calder and Atsuko Tanaka, who each revolutionized how we think about line in space; and Martin Puryear and Anne Truitt, with their painted wood sculptures that mimic, and at the same time humanize, Minimalist sculpture.
The companion presentation, titled The Sensation of Space, on view May 20 through November 15 at The Warehouse, expands upon ideas set forth at the Nasher. Groupings of works from the two collections will be installed throughout The Warehouse’s 16 galleries, with a focus on material, formal, or conceptual relationships such as small-scale objects that show a sense of the artist’s touch—from a Phyllida Barlow work made of tape and paper to a Lucio Fontana ceramic to a Willem de Kooning bronze—as well as a gallery dedicated to assemblage, spanning almost 100 years, beginning with the Nasher’s piece by Ivan Puni, ca. 1915-16, to a 2006 work by Isa Genzken. Figurative representation in sculpture will also be explored in works by such artists as Janine Antoni, Alberto Giacometti, Robert Gober, David Hammons, and Auguste Rodin. The pairing of Constantin Brancusi’s The Kiss with Felix Gonzalez-Torres’ "Untitled" (Perfect Lovers) shows two artists using a pared-down geometric language to generate highly emotive works.
The pairing of these two Dallas collections offers a true celebration of the creative, energizing spirit of sculpture in its diverse formal and thematic investigations.
TOURS
Pairings: Sculpture in the Nasher & Rachofsky Collections at the Nasher
Tours of Pairings: Sculpture in the Nasher & Rachofsky Collections at the Nasher will be offered to the public monthly through the run of the exhibition, providing visitors to the Nasher the opportunity to make connections and continue the dialogue between the works from the collections distributed between the two institutions. Visitors and Nasher Members are invited to public tours of Pairings: Sculpture in the Nasher & Rachofsky Collections hosted by the curators of the show, Nasher Assistant Curator, Dr. Leigh Arnold, and Director of Educational Programming at The Warehouse, Thomas Feulmer.
FREE with Admission / Registration Recommended
Nasher Sculpture Center, 2001 Flora Street, Dallas
June 8 – 11 a.m.
July 13 – 11 a.m.
August 10 – 11 a.m.
Register now at nashersculpturecenter.org/engage
The Sensation of Space at The Warehouse
Nasher Members are exclusively invited to tours of The Sensation of Space at The Warehouse, hosted by the curators of the exhibition, Nasher Assistant Curator, Dr. Leigh Arnold, and Director of Educational Programming at The Warehouse, Thomas Feulmer.
FREE for Nasher Members / Registration Required
The Warehouse, 14105 Inwood Road, Dallas
June 15 - 11 a.m., 2 p.m., and 4 p.m.
July 20 - 11 a.m., 2 p.m., and 4 p.m.
August 17 - 11 a.m., 2 p.m., and 4 p.m.
Register now at nashersculpturecenter.org/engage
Public tours offered to the general public by The Warehouse will be announced in their Email Newsletter. To sign up for The Warehouse’s Email Newsletter, visit: www.thewarehousedallas.org/education/email-newsletter/
Pairings: Sculpture in the Nasher & Rachofsky Collections and The Sensation of Space are co-organized by the Nasher Sculpture Center in partnership with The Warehouse, Dallas. Major support for the exhibition is provided by Cindy and Howard Rachofsky.
About the Rachofsky Collection
The Rachofsky Collection of roughly 1000 works of contemporary art generally falls within two broad themes: first, the aesthetic of global minimalism paralleling the architecture of The Rachofsky House, including but not limited to American Minimalism, post-war European art, with a specific focus on Italian art, and the art of post-war Japan; secondly, the exploration of the post-war notion of identity, encompassing much of the representational work from around the globe. Artists of note in the collection include: Janine Antoni, Lucio Fontana, Tom Friedman, Robert Gober, Felix Gonzalez-Torres, Mona Hatoum, Donald Judd, Piero Manzoni, Mario Merz, Marisa Merz, Sadamasa Motonaga, Saburo Murakami, Gerhard Richter, Robert Ryman, Nobuo Sekine, and Kazuo Shiraga. For more information visit: www.thewarehousedallas.org/
About the Nasher Sculpture Center
Located in the heart of the Dallas Arts District, the Nasher Sculpture Center is home to the Raymond and Patsy Nasher Collection, one of the finest collections of modern and contemporary sculpture in the world, featuring more than 300 masterpieces by Calder, de Kooning, di Suvero, Giacometti, Gormley, Hepworth, Kelly, Matisse, Miró, Moore, Picasso, Rodin, Serra, and Shapiro, among others.
The Nasher Sculpture Center is open Tuesday through Sunday from 11 am to 5 pm, and from 10 am to 5 pm on the first Saturday of each month. Admission is $10 for adults, $7 for seniors, $5 for students, and free for children 12 and under and members, and includes access to special exhibitions. For more information, visit www.NasherSculptureCenter.org.
For high resolution images of Pairings: Sculpture in the Nasher & Rachofsky Collections or The Sensation of Space please contact: [email protected]
Press contact:
Lucia Simek
Nasher Sculpture Center
Manager of Communications and International Programs
+1 214.242.5177
[email protected]