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===== Exhibit shares Ray and Patsy Nasher's personal connections with their art collection =====

12:00 AM CDT on Saturday, September 20, 2008

//By KRISTON CAPPS / Special Contributor to The Dallas Morning News//\\
Kriston Capps is a freelance writer in Washington, D.C.

Jean Arp's Torso With Buds started it all.

Patsy Nasher was already an avid art collector by 1967. She and her husband, Ray, had built a large collection of pre-Columbian artifacts. But Arp's piece – a 6-foot-tall, biomorphic bronze totem, fusing human and botanical figures into one polyp-pocked form – was unlike anything she had considered.Living at the time in New York, where Mr. Nasher was serving as a delegate to the United Nations General Assembly, Mrs. Nasher was introduced to both modern artists and modernism.

"This piece gave her butterflies, and she thought and hoped that it would give him butterflies," says the Nashers' daughter, Nancy Nasher.

Torso With Buds was the first piece of modern sculpture the couple would collect, bought by Mrs. Nasher as a gift for her husband on his 46th birthday. It stood in the entryway to the Nashers' home for decades, leaving its post only on rare occasions.

The next year after that gift, Mr. Nasher surprised his wife with a piece for her birthday: Gregory (Effigy), a bronze by Isamu Noguchi. A thoughtful gift would lay the foundation for one of the largest private collections of modern sculpture in the world.

For the Nasher Sculpture Center's five-year anniversary, Torso With Buds is on display for the first time, along with other works from the collection inspired by that purchase.

"In Pursuit of the Masters: Stories From the Raymond and Patsy Nasher Collection," opening today, portrays the history of the collection in several ways: through masterworks, sculptures that had personal significance for the collectors, and pieces by artists with whom the Nashers shared friendships.

At any given time, the museum can host about one-third of the collection the couple assembled. Though the Nasher collection is sizable, it is not a comprehensive survey of 20th-century sculpture.

"Their idea wasn't to put together the finest example of modern and contemporary sculpture in the world," says Jed Morse, acting chief curator of the museum. "They collected pretty eclectically and collected what they loved."

The Arp piece and some other notable works – including Clamdigger, a plaster figure by Willem de Kooning; For Delores, a carved marble piece by Tony Smith; and a plaster, terra-cotta, and iron still life by Picasso – are on display for the first time in the museum. Previously, the works were centerpieces in the Nashers' home. Mrs. Nasher died in 1988; Mr. Nasher died in March of last year.

Mr. Nasher continued to add to the collection after his wife's death, collecting works by contemporary sculptors such as Jeff Koons, and even adding one monumental sculpture: Jonathan Borofsky's 2004 Walking to the Sky, a 100-foot-tall stainless steel pole traversed by painted fiberglass figures.

"It's interesting to see what Ray did after Patsy passed away. He really continued on the path they set off on together," says Mr. Morse. Mr. Nasher introduced new contemporary figures, the curator says, but also filled historical gaps, snagging a crucial acquisition in Auguste Rodin's Age of Bronze. "A lot of people point to Rodin's Age of Bronze as the beginning of modernism in sculpture," Mr. Morse explains.

Stories of the collectors' personal relationships with artists are interspersed throughout the exhibit. Mrs. Nasher once traded jewelry with Andy Warhol for portraits of herself and three daughters, paintings on view in "In Pursuit of the Masters."

The Nashers' care for their collection is also told through many details that go largely unnoticed. The dirt in the sculpture garden is extravagantly expensive stuff, designed to withstand the movement of equipment and a Richard Serra sculpture weighing more than 50 tons. A handicap-accessible bench in the James Turrell skyspace is made from 500 pounds of stone. Even the lighted exit signs are custom-designed by the design firm 2x4 specifically for the Renzo Piano-built museum.

Above all, "In Pursuit of the Masters" reflects the interests of Mrs. Nasher, whose tastes honed the collection.

"She always did her homework. She did a tremendous amount of research and she was extremely selective," says daughter Nancy. "She took copious notes, went to all the museums, all the exhibitions."

Kriston Capps is a freelance writer in Washington, D.C.

Plan your life

"In Pursuit of the Masters: Stories From the Raymond and Patsy Nasher Collection" runs through Jan. 4 at the Nasher Sculpture Center, 2001 Flora St. www.nasher sculpturecenter.org or 214-242-5100.

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