The Nasher Sculpture Center with an installation by Melvin Edwards.
Photo: Nasher Sculpture Center.

Phyllida Barlow‘s untitled:hangingmonument2015 will be the first work in a new fund for female artist acquisitions at the Nasher Sculpture Center in Dallas.

The Kaleta A. Doolin Acquisitions Fund for Women Artists will provide $750,000 as seed money for the project to grow. The fund is named for author, artist, and patron Kaleta A. Doolin is the granddaughter of Frito’s founder C.E. Doolin.)

The fund will focus specifically on improving the Nasher’s holdings of work by living female artists.

“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,” said director Jeremy Strick in a press release.

Phyllida Barlow, untitled:hangingmonument2015 (2015).

Barlow’s work, untitled:hangingmonument2015, is currently on display at the Nasher as part of the exhibition “tryst,” which runs until August 30.

It was inspired by a drive Barlow took with her husband in Texas in 2003, during which the pair witnessed “an enormous, amorphous form being extracted from the ground, dripping with oil and muck.” The long, heavy, tubular column, which is suspended in the air, was specifically designed for the space.

“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,” continued Strick.

The Nasher currently owns work by Magdalena Abakanowicz, Nancy Grossman, Barbara Hepworth, and Beverly Pepper. No information has been released about future acquisitions yet.

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