The Marfa.Org ®@ŋd¤m‡zЄ®

Residents Fight Trade Corridor & Truck Traffic
Marfa, Alpine on Mexico Truck Path
TxDoT to Hold Public Meeting in Marfa April 17 [BBS]
La Entrada Cartoon by Golliver [Big Bend Sentinel]
TxDOT debates La Entrada
The weeHouse Grows Up
Walking Marfa (Blog Post)
Rare 1912 Photo Postcard of Courthouse [eBay]
CD: Listening to Donald Judd, by S. Vitiello [ebay]
Less is More
Seattle Art Museum Gets $1 billion Infusion of Art

Art Collector Nasher Dies at 85

Dallas art collector and philanthropist, Raymond Nasher, died on Friday. Nasher is credited as the first developer to include fine art in a retail project when, in 1971, he commissioned sculptures by Beverly Pepper in North Park in Dallas. Later in life, Nasher built a museum, Nasher Sculpture Center, in downtown Dallas to house his collection of modern and contemporary art, one of the finest private collections in the world. Among the artists represented in the collection are Picasso, Giacometti, Rodin, Henry Moore, Joan Miró, Alexander Calder, Barbara Hepworth, Donald Judd, Andy Warhol, Claes Oldenberg and Roy Lichtenstein. He was 85.




Articles on Raymond Nasher:
New York Times
Letters to Dallas Morning News
DFW Airport to Honor Nasher

Raymond Nasher Bio from the Nasher Sculpture Center website:
(note: it has not been updated since his passing.)

Raymond D. Nasher is one of this country’s leading collectors of modern and contemporary sculpture. He also was one of the first real estate developers in the United States to place art, primarily sculpture, in commercial retail complexes. He did this believing that art nurtures intellectual and aesthetic curiosity and enhances the overall experience of every environment.
Mr. Nasher and his late wife, Patsy, began collecting art nearly fifty years ago. Starting by building an important collection of pre-Columbian art, over time the collection evolved into one of the most extensive and important collections of modern sculpture in private hands. Mrs. Nasher used to say about the couple’s partnership in building the collection, “It’s not that we collected art, but that the art collected us!”

In 1965, when Mr. Nasher opened his first retail shopping center in Dallas—NorthPark Center—he made a commitment to installing art throughout the Center. To do this, he designed a structure inside and out that met the needs of the retailers and had the space necessary to display large sculptures by artists such as Jonathan Borofsky, Mark di Suvero, Henry Moore, Beverly Pepper, and George Segal. The design also included special interior water features, open spaces, as well as exterior landscape, all of which complement the art. NorthPark Center and the nearby NorthPark National Bank (now Comerica Bank)—another project of The Nasher Company—have both won architectural and design awards, and have become models for other developers throughout the world.

Mr. Nasher has played a leading role in the development and growth of many of the major arts organizations in Dallas. He has also focused attention on business support of the arts in Dallas by establishing the Dallas Business Committee for the Arts (DBCA) in 1988, which contributed to increased business support of the arts in Dallas from $4.5 million in 1988 to approximately $24 million annually today.

Mr. Nasher has been a member of the national Business Committee for the Arts, Inc. (BCA) since 1987, and in October 2002, was appointed Chairman. He also serves as a member of The National Council of the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco and on the International Council of the Tate Gallery in London. He has been a board member of The Dallas Museum of Art, The Dallas Opera, The Dallas Symphony, the Dallas Theatre Center, Ballet Dallas, and the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth.

Mr. Nasher is Chairman of The Nasher Foundation and Chairman of Comerica Bank-Texas. He was appointed to serve on the President’s Committee on the Arts and the Humanities by President George H.W. Bush in 1990, by President William Jefferson Clinton in 1999, and by President George W. Bush in 2002. He is currently Vice-Chairman of the Committee. From 1992-1995 he served on the Texas Commission on the Arts. From 1988 to 1992 he was the Ambassador of Cultural Affairs for the City of Dallas. He received the American Institute of Architects Award for “Design of the Decade—1960’s” for NorthPark Center; the Award for Distinguished Service to the Visual Arts given by the University of North Texas; and the 1994 Flora Award. The Nasher Company received Business in the Arts Awards in 1976 and 1987 in recognition of its outstanding commitment to business-arts alliances.

DEEP COMEDY, Ballroom Marfa

Deep Comedy is an exhibition of work by artists whose conceptual practices are underpinned by humor. Brought together by artist Dan Graham and independent curator Sylvia Chivaratanond, the works in Deep Comedy transform elements of the commonplace into playgrounds for amusement through a wide range of media including sculpture, video, installation, photography and performance. Through work by Fischli&Weiss (Switzerland), Isa Genzken (Germany), Jef Geys (Belgium), Rodney Graham (Canada), Christian Jankowski (Germany), Japanther (USA), Julia Scher (USA), Roman Signer (Switzerland), Michael Smith (USA), William Wegman (USA), John Wesley (USA), Joshua White (USA) & Elin Wikström (Sweden), traditional modes of viewing are subverted via surprising forms of delivery and display.

Deep Comedy embraces the oxymoronic nature of the funny – where banality, irreverence and trauma occasion the deepest bestial laughs. In the works presented easy allies are made of critical thought and humor, intellectualism and play. For these artists, critique of current socio-political and artistic institutions, though serious, take the form of playful, absurd and sarcastic gestures. They undermine the earnestness and solemnity of authoritarian projects and insidious systems of social organization.

Core themes of Dan Graham’s own art practice are recognizable in Deep Comedy. Architecture as a mechanism of power to govern and control physical and psychological space has been an ongoing interest to Graham since the 60s, as has his artistic engagement and writings on the public and private functions of television and video as transmitters (and receivers) of information. The artist’s intention to create situations where viewers become conscious of their own perception filters through in Deep Comedy where artists oppugn the conventions of production and display of artworks, the certitude of the museum or art institution, and the rarefied status of works of art. Underwriting these various points of intersection between the works in Deep Comedy is an anarchic sensibility and an urge for expressions of disdainful amusement.

Deep Comedy will open with a night of performances on Friday 23 March 2007. Brooklyn-based punk-rock duo Japanther will present a jump-in-the-fire performance of “Laugh Dance”, a new work conceived and performed with New York dance company RobbinsChilds. At 10pm at Ray’s Bar, Elin Wikström will be conducting the first part of her performance for Deep Comedy, an art-style pub quiz with invited artists, curators and collectors alongside Marfa folk as contestants. Wikström will host the second night of the quiz on Saturday night at 7pm.Opening weekend festivities culminate at Ballroom's Liberty Hall on Saturday, March 24th, with a rare live appearance from the composer, musician, and artist Sam Prekop.Sam Prekop is one of the architects of the influential and highly innovative Chicago underground music scene. Long known for the naturalistic alloy of jazz-inflected compositions and exotic textures that he helped pioneer with his indie-rock projects Shrimp Boat and the Sea & Cake, Prekop managed, as ever, to confound expectations with his most recent solo release, Who's Your New Professor, an album of airy abstractions and a chiming, unusually electric aesthetic. Prekop will be performing at Liberty Hall with fellow Sea & Cake musician collaborater Archer Prewitt - himself a noted presence on the Chicago scene - for this very special Ballroom evening. Showtime is 9 pm. This event is free.

Opening Reception:
Friday 23 March, 6-8pm
With live performance byJapanther with RobbinsChilds

Live artist performance at Ray's Bar byElin Wikström:
Friday 23 March, 10pm / Saturday 24 March, 7pm

Walkthrough with the Curators:
Saturday 24 March, 3.30pm

Music Event: Sam Prekop live at Ballroom’s Liberty Hall
Saturday 24 March, 8pm

For more information see BallroomMarfa.org

The Marfa.Org ®@ŋd¤m‡zЄ®

You Say Tomato, I Say Industrial
Marfa Bands (SPIC, Pines) Get Out-Of-Town Gigs
José González Schedules Marfa Among Gigs

From ArtNet column WEEKEND UPDATE by Walter Robinson:
"Painter Joanne Greenbaum is off to the art colony in Marfa, Texas, as painter-in-residence for two months at either the Judd Foundation or the Chinati Foundation (or both, who can tell which)."

Information about Chinati's Artist-In-Residence Program

Interesting Auctions:
Real Photo Post Card of 1914 Marfa Adobe House
1950's Photo Collection of the Mitchell Ranch
Video Explanation of Marfa Lights
Christie's Catalogue, DONALD JUDD Collection

Sorry for the gap in posts, I just returned from a fun-filled vacation where I tried to stay as far away from a computer as possible. Spent some time in Phoenix and Palm Springs checking out the architecture and a big-time professional tennis tournament...