DALLAS, TX.- Nasher Sculpture Center announces the formation of a new fund for the acquisition of work by women artists: the Kaleta A. Doolin Acquisitions Fund for Women Artists. Established with the generous seed gift from the foundation named for author, artist, and arts patron Kaleta A. Doolin, the fund will provide an initial $750,000 toward the purchasing of work by women artists, helping substantially grow both the Nasher Sculpture Center’s collection of work by women artists and, with a keen focus on living artists, its contemporary art holdings.

“It is the Nasher Sculpture Center’s great fortune to be granted this generous acquisitions gift, and we could not be more grateful to Ms. Doolin or excited about the possibilities this gift affords,” says Director Jeremy Strick. “To be able to expand and enrich the Collection’s holdings of work made by women artists is of paramount importance, helping round out the permanent collection and highlight the tremendous contributions that women have made, and continue to make, to sculpture.”

The first work to be purchased with the fund will be by the British artist Phyllida Barlow, whose exhibition ‘tryst’ opened at the Nasher in May and runs until August 30, 2015. The acquired work, called untitled:hangingmonument2015, features a large, wrapped, tubular form that hangs horizontally from a tall steel structure. Held aloft by a black rigging strap, the long, heavy column is rendered weightless. For Barlow, the horizontal form in the piece stems from an experience in Texas in 2003 during an artist residency with University of Texas at Dallas when she and her husband, on a drive through the oil fields, witnessed an enormous, amorphous form being extracted from the ground, dripping with oil and muck. Like the other works featured in ‘tryst,’ Barlow made untitled:hangingmonument2015 specifically for the exhibition at the Nasher.

“To begin with the purchase of a work by Phyllida Barlow—an artist at the height of her career, of great influence to younger generations of artists, and with deep ties to the Nasher—is very meaningful for the museum,” continues Mr. Strick. “We look forward to other such tremendous additions to the Nasher Collection that can now be made thanks to this focused and important fund.”

Works acquired through the Kaleta A. Doolin Acquisitions Fund for Women Artists will augment the Nasher Collection’s important sculptures by women artists, including Magdalena Abakanowicz, Nancy Grossman, Barbara Hepworth, and Beverly Pepper.

Phyllida Barlow was born in 1944 in Newcastle upon Tyne, England. She lives and works in London. In the late 1960s, Barlow began teaching at the Slade School of Fine Art as Professor of Fine Art. In 2009, she retired from teaching in order to focus on her own work. In 2011 Barlow was selected a Royal Academician.

Barlow's recent solo exhibitions include, ‘set’, Fruitmarket Gallery, Edinburgh, Scotland; 'dock', her Tate Duveen Comission, London (2014), 'Phyllida Barlow. Fifty Years of Drawing', Hauser & Wirth London, 'HOARD', Norton Museum of Art, West Palm Beach FL; 'Scree', Des Moines Art Center, Des Moines IA (2013); '... later', Hauser & Wirth New York NY (2012); 'Phyllida Barlow: siege',New Museum, New York NY (2012); 'BRINK', Ludwig Forum, Aachen, Germany (2012); 'Phyllida Barlow: Bad Copies', Henry Moore Institute, Leeds, England (2012); 'RIG', Hauser & Wirth London, Piccadilly (2011); 'Cast', Kunstverein Nürnberg, Nuremberg, Germany (2011); 'STREET', BAWAG Contemporary, Vienna, Austria (2010); and in 2010, she was in the critically acclaimed two-person show at the Serpentine Gallery, London, England with Nairy Baghramian. Recent group shows include 'Carnegie International 2013', Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh PA (2013); La Biennale di Venezia,'55th International Art Exhibition: The Encyclopedic Palace', Venice, Italy (2013); 'The Best of Times, The Worst of Times – Rebirth and Apocalypse in Contemporary Art', The First International Kiev Biennale, Kiev, Ukraine (2012); 'Sculptural Acts', Haus der Kunst, Munich, Germany (2011); 'Displaced Fractures', Migros Museum für Gegenwartskunst, Zurich, Switzerland (2010).

In 2012, Barlow received the Aachen Art Prize and 'Award for the Most Significant Contribution to the Development of Contemporary Art' at The First International Kiev Biennale, Kiev, Ukraine. Barlow also sits on the Nasher Prize jury.