Nasher Sculpture Center Acquires Walking to the Sky

Saturday, 22 October 2005 10:41

DALLAS, TX.-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 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.” 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.”

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