The 2023 Nasher Prize Gala Was a Feast for the Eyes
Dallas Art-World Heavy Hitters Gathered to Honor 2023 Nasher Prize Laureate Senga Nengudi
BY Diana Spechler // 04.10.23The scene at the 2023 Nasher Prize Gala (Photo by Jonathan Zizzo, A Sea of Love and Can Turk)
Outside the Nasher Sculpture Center, it was one of those rare perfect evenings, as if the weather saw all the glamorous updos and agreed to behave. From the stage in the dinner tent, 79-year-old artist Senga Nengudi accepted the 2023 Nasher Prize, an annual award that grants $100,000 and worldwide prestige to “a living artist whose work has had an extraordinary impact on the understanding of sculpture.”
In an artist statement, Nengudi once wrote: “An artist’s supposed greatest desire is the making of objects that will last lifetimes …. this has never been a priority for me.” Hence, the gala paid homage to the theme of impermanence. You could see it in the gorgeous but short-lived fresh flower chandeliers. You could see it in the entertainment by vocalist Damon K. Clark and Dallas Black Dance Theater’s Nycole Ray — after all, no art is as temporary as performance. Soon we’ll loosen our bowties and shimmy out of shapewear; soon the weather would preclude outdoor parties. So, we celebrated the ephemerality of beauty, of life, of art.
Among the 300-plus guests enjoying red pepper caviar, roasted spring lamb, and Dom Pérignon were Dallas art-world heavy hitters. “This is my favorite nonprofit event of the year, and I go to all of them,” said the Bowdon Family Foundation’s Megan Ruth Bowdon-Wilkinson. Co-chairs Mary McDermott Cook and her daughter Grace Cook presided over the evening. Nasher Sculpture Center director Jeremy Strick made a toast. Clad in a purple Vivienne Westwood gown, Capera Ryan, deputy chairman of the Americas for Christie’s Auction House, reminisced about growing up across the street from Ray Nasher. “Our window overlooked his sculpture garden. I sold him Girl Scout cookies. Later, I sold him art.”
PC Spotted: Nancy A. Nasher and David J. Haemisegger, Andrea Karnes, Alison Hearst, Michael Corman and Kevin Fink, Fanchon and Howard Hallam, Caren Prothro, Cindy and Armond Schwartz, Christen and Derek Wilson, Sharon and Michael Young, Lynn McBee, Debbie and Eric Green, Adriana and Guillermo Perales, Agustín Arteaga and Carlos Gonzalez-Jaime, John Dayton, Jessica Nowitzki, Laura Wilson, Janelle and Alden Pinnell, Donna Wilhelm, and Hugh Hayden.
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