Continuing its investigation of contemporary architecture, the Nasher Sculpture Center will present a retrospective of the work of Pritzker Prize-winning architect Norman Foster and his architectural firm, Foster + Partners, through January 10, 2010.
Scheduled to coincide with the grand opening of the new, Foster-designed Winspear Opera House in the Dallas Center for Performing Arts, the exhibition will explore Foster + Partners’ major architectural achievements of a practice that spans the past four decades. Architectural models, along with drawings, renderings, photographs, and videos, will give insight into the formal and conceptual underpinnings of Foster + Partners’ architecture and provide context for better understanding their new contribution to the panoply of modernist architecture in Dallas.
“The Nasher is pleased to present an exhibition which showcases Foster + Partner’s greatest architectural works and explores the firm’s philosophy that the quality of surroundings has a direct influence on the quality of lives and the culture and climate of place,” said Jeremy Strick, Director of the Nasher Sculpture Center. “With the opening of the Foster-designed Winspear Opera House, Dallas will be the only city in the world that has four buildings within one contiguous block designed by Pritzker Architecture Prize winners, including the Renzo Piano-designed Nasher Sculpture Center.”
Foster + Partners’ philosophy was born out of early experimental projects undertaken with R. Buckminster Fuller in the 1970s that attempted to align the built environment more closely with natural forms and processes. Focusing on cultural buildings and civic spaces, as well as select infrastructure projects, The Art of Architecture: Foster + Partners will present important milestones in the firm’s practice that reflect its emphases on structural innovation and sustainable design and provide important precedents for the Winspear Opera House. The exhibition will feature some of the largest and most notable structures in the world, including the Great Court at the British Museum, the Reichstag in Berlin, Trafalgar Square in London, and the new Terminal 3 at the Beijing International Airport.
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 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 11 am to 5 pm and Thursday from 11 am to 9 pm, and until 11 pm for Saturday Night in the City. General Admission to the Center 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.
Image: Design concept for the National Museum of African American History and Culture submitted by Foster + Partners/URS Group, Inc
