Nasher Sculpture Center Acquires Borofsky’s Walking to the Sky
On Display in Dallas, Work Becomes Part of The Raymond and Patsy Nasher Collection
Dallas, TX, October 19, 2005 — The Nasher Sculpture Center announced today that it has acquired Walking to the Sky (2004), a sculpture by internationally renowned artist Jonathan Borofsky. The 100-ft tall dramatic artwork features a group of seven painted fiberglass figures of different races, ages, and genders walking briskly up a stainless steel pole toward the sky. Three other figures stand on the ground observing their assent. Walking to the Sky rises out of the ground at a 75-degree angle and towers high above the trees and building at the Center, making it visible from several blocks away in every direction.
Walking to the Sky has been on view in the Center’s Sculpture Garden since March 23, 2005. It’s only previous installation was at New York’s Rockefeller Center in September of 2004. The work was originally inspired by a story Borofsky’s father told him as a child about a friendly giant who lived in the sky. During each tale, father and son would imagine walking to the sky and visiting with the giant, discussing what should be done to help everyone on earth. As Borofsky noted, “the sculpture is a celebration of the human potential for discovering who we are and where we need to go.”
“Jonathan Borofsky is known for his highly abstracted figures that are rich with strong formal and narrative qualities,” said Dr. Steven Nash, Director of the Nasher Sculpture Center. “Walking to the Sky has proven to be extremely popular. People relate naturally to the different narrative possibilities they find in the work and also love its physical exuberance.”
In Walking to the Sky, Borofsky continues his ongoing exploration of human ideals, dream life, and fantasy while expanding to a larger compositional group. As Borofsky explained, “It is all of humanity rising upwards from the earth to the heavens above – striving into the future with strength and determination…We are all learning to be free and ultimately this sculpture is a symbol of our collective search for wisdom and awakened consciousness.”
Walking to the Sky joins several other Borofsky works from the Nasher Collection currently on view in Dallas. A 20-foot-high version of Hammering Man (1984-85) and the White Flying Figure with Numbers (1984) are both installed at the Nasher Sculpture Center. In addition, Borofsky’s Five Hammering Men (1982) can be seen at NorthPark Center, a commercial property in Dallas owned by Raymond Nasher and his daughter, Nancy A. Nasher, and son-in-law, David J. Haemisegger.
Borofsky, who began his career making hermetic drawings and paintings and complex gallery installations, has spent the last two decades developing a personalized iconography of human life, which he transforms into large-scale public installations. Built with such materials as steel, aluminum, stained glass, and colored light, these large-scale works enliven indoor and outdoor spaces around the world.
Raymond Nasher, renowned collector and philanthropist, founder of the Nasher Sculpture Center, and principal benefactor of the recently opened Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University, has long been interested in Borofsky’s work. “My late wife Patsy and I started collecting Jonathan’s work in the early 1980s,” he said. “Our collection of his work now includes about twenty sculptures, prints, and paintings. He is one of the most significant artists of this generation, and I particularly admire the way he can work on a monumental scale and still make objects with wit, spirit, and meaning.”
In addition to Walking to the Sky, this fall the Nasher Sculpture Center will present other works from The Raymond and Patsy Nasher Collection that have never before been on view at the Center. Objects installed in the Lower Level Gallery represent different manifestations of Minimalism, and include Al Rectagrate (2002) by Carl Andre, Darkcrest III (1976) by Bryan Hunt, Sol LeWitt’s Modular Cube/Base (1968), a sculpture by Donald Judd in his Progression series, and three drawings and three cardboard maquettes by Tony Smith.
About the Nasher Sculpture Center
Opened in 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 is a longtime dream of Raymond Nasher and his late wife Patsy, 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 many 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 café, and a store. The Nasher Sculpture Center is open Tuesday through Sunday from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. and on Thursday from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. The Center will also remain open until 10 p.m. on the third Thursday of every month for Thursday Night in the Center and until 11pm on the first Saturday of each month for its Saturday Night in the City program. Admission is $10 for adults, $7 for seniors, $5 for students, and free for members and children 12 and under. The price of admission includes an audio tour. For more information, visit www.NasherSculptureCenter.org.
