By Bill Zeeble, KERA 90.1 reporter
Dallas, TX – Bill Zeeble, KERA 90.1 reporter: Raymond Nasher, who with his late wife Patsy began collecting modern sculpture in the 1960's, says institutions and cities around the world have tried for years to get this collection. London, New York, Washington and others wanted it. But Nasher, speaking at the Sculpture Center site when it was still under construction, said Dallas is his adopted home, where he built a long and successful construction business. So he decided to put the Center here.
Raymond Nasher, businessman, collector: We wanted this to be in the center of the city, to be a catalyst for other things, because there's a million square foot building across the street from it, and museums on the other side, and the symphony hall. We felt strongly that this is something that hopefully would be both a museum, a park, and an educational component. So Dallas will have a global kind of cultural facility.
Zeeble: Which is only appropriate, says Stephen Nash, because the works inside are by modern masters from around the globe. including Rodin, Picasso, Calder, and Giacometti,
Stephen Nash, Director, Nasher Sculpture Center: The Nasher collection is well known as being one of the finest private collections of modern sculpture in the world, and perhaps the finest in private hands.
Zeeble: Nash was lured away from the chief curator position at San Francisco's Fine Arts Museum to become the Sculpture Center Director.
Nash: It has few museum peers, so it's at that overall level of quality. As the collection evolved, it became more or less a textbook history of the development of modern sculpture going from the late 19th century up to the present day.
Zeeble: And it will keep growing, says Ray Nasher. Just four months ago, he added another Matisse to the collection. The center has commissioned a work for the opening, by James Turrell. Nasher says all the works he and his wife collected gave him butterflies, which is why they bought them. And after many years, they still enthrall him. Nasher wanted the Sculpture Center building to equal the art within.
Nasher: It's like the forum in Rome, or the Grecian temples. It's something that material-wise, with the granite from South Africa, with the glass from Venice, with the sunscreen that creates natural light. That in essence, this should be here a thousand years from now.
Zeeble: Towards that goal, Nasher sought out one of the greatest architects today, Renzo Piano. The 1998 winner of the Pritzker Prize, arguably the world's most prestigious architecture honor, Piano said he was eager to steal the land from what had been there, a parking lot.
Renzo Piano, Architect, Nasher Sculpture Center: Making a sculpture garden, somewhere else, in a paradise, is not exactly the same as making it right in the middle of the mess. When I say mess, I don't want to be negative. I'm just saying every city is a mess. Every city is made of streets, people going, running, making what they have to do. So the idea of sitting, with a sculpture garden, that it's is the place for contemplation and counsel, and right in middle of a city was, of course, a very important part of idea.
Zeeble: Piano and Nasher also thought the great art should be seen simultaneously from the street and the garden. So while Piano designed the side walls in fine Italian stone, the front and rear walls are glass.
Piano: From when you enter, you see through the rest of the building. It's not very big, 50-thousand square feet altogether, and so you see through the building the rest of the garden. The same when you're in the garden and look back; you'll see through the building.
Zeeble: Critics have called Piano's design elegant and radiant. The most original aspect of the building is the convex glass ceiling, blanketed with a cast-metal layer of angled tubes, or louvers. The patented design, never used before, accomplishes what every museum director in the world wants: a well-lighted space without the damage from direct sunlight.
Vel Hawes, Design and Construction Coordinator, Nasher Sculpture Center: It's designed in such a way that the sun is denied access ever, 365 days a year.
Zeeble: Vel Hawes, the Sculpture Center's Design and Construction Coordinator, has worked with Ray Nasher for decades on a multitude of projects, including NorthPark Center. He said he almost retired until Nasher made him an offer he couldn't refuse - overseeing Nasher and Piano's vision for the Sculpture Center.
Hawes: But always, north light is permitted in, which is the genius of it. As you look up and see the most blue sky, that's due north. And therefore, that's where all the north light comes in, the natural light that art so loves to be displayed in. As you move from due north, you see less and less blue sky, and more of the louvers.
Zeeble: Hawes says the roof alone was enormously expensive: $250 a square foot. But he said that indicates Nasher's commitment to using the highest quality materials and design. The original $35 million estimate for this center, paid for entirely by Nasher, has soared to $70 million. But Hawes says it didn't run over budget, because there was no budget.
Hawes: I've done a lot of projects for Mr. Nasher over the past 35 years - all of them commercial - and of course, there were very tight budgets. One of Ray's great strengths as a developer was to build projects at the going rate, but get so much more for the money - bang for the buck. But this was different. It's the one where he says, when given two options, it's "which one is best?" And so everything on the project has been done that way.
Zeeble: Ray Nasher hopes the center will not only display his collection in the best possible light, but will also spark a drowsy Dallas arts district.
Nasher: We were behind in the arts district. There were a few galleries that didn't have the great works of art they have in other cities. So we were way behind Fort Worth and other cities in the world, as far as the arts were concerned.
Zeeble: Nasher believes that has now changed, and he plans to spend a lot of his time in the new center. It will also afford him regular access to sculpture he used to live with.
Nasher: I think seeing them at home was wonderful, but now placing it into a building and garden that perhaps will be singular in the world, gives me a much greater satisfaction. I felt relatively selfish having these at home and just showing them to people who would come and visit. Now, it's available for everyone in the world, so it's much more exciting.
Zeeble: The Nasher Sculpture Center is holding special receptions all week, and then officially opens to the public next Monday morning. For KERA 90.1, I'm Bill Zeeble.
Email Bill Zeeble about this story. For more information on the Nasher Sculpture Center, visit www.nashersculpturecenter.org.