Nasher Sculpture Center

Mark di Suvero’s Eviva Amore in the Nasher Sculpture Center garden. Photographer: Tim Hursley
The Nasher’s interior galleries are infused with natural light, courtesy of an innovative aluminum sunscreen designed for the project. Photographer: Tim Hursley
Glass facades at the end of each pavilion connect the indoor and outdoor spaces. Photographer: Tim Hursley
The Nasher Sculpture Center’s two-acre garden features three water features with fountains and accommodates about 30 pieces of sculpture at a time. Photographer: Tim Hursley
Barbara Hepworth’s Squares with Two Circles (Monolith) in the garden’s reflecting pool. Photographer: Tim Hursley
Jonathan Borofsky’s 100-foot-high Walking to the Sky was first exhibited at New York’s Rockefeller Center in 2004, then moved to the Nasher in 2005. Photographer: Tim Hursley

In early May, we kicked off this year’s Retail Hotspot series with a look at NorthPark Center, the Dallas mega-mall designed in the 1960s to showcase developer and art enthusiast Raymond D. Nasher’s collection of 20th Century art.

Well, Nasher and his wife Patsy continued to acquire sculpture by the likes of Calder, Miro, Picasso and Rodin, and in 1999 selected architect Renzo Piano to design a sculpture museum and garden to serve as a permanent home for their growing collection. Three designs and 18 months later, construction began on a site adjacent to the Dallas Museum of Art in the downtown Dallas Arts District.

The Nasher Sculpture Center opened in 2003 on a 2.4-acre oasis of green surrounded by skyscrapers—a fantastic backdrop for the larger works on display in the garden. Widely regarded as the best art venue in Dallas, the Nasher boasts a collection of 300+ pieces of contemporary and modern sculpture, considered by some experts to be the finest private sculpture collection in the world. (Funded, in part, by the success of NorthPark Center. Hooray for retail.)

You’ll get a taste of the Nashers’ collection when you visit NorthPark, but if you’re an art lover, set aside a few hours for the full experience. Make plans to visit the Nasher Sculpture Center here, and read about its upcoming exhibition (opening during IRDC) here.

Tip: When you go, don’t miss the one site-specific installation at the back of the garden—a James Turrell “skyspace” labeled Tending, (Blue) that’s easily overlooked. Sit in the enclosed structure and take in the view of the sky through a 9.5-foot square opening in the ceiling. Conditioned by a complex system of colored lights that change continuously, your eye perceives that patch of sky in extraordinary ways. The Nasher website describes it best.