» ABOUT THE EXHIBITION

FAST FORWARD: CONTEMPORARY COLLECTIONS FOR THE DALLAS
MUSEUM OF ART

February 11–May 20, 2007

J. E. R. Chilton Galleries, Focus Gallery I & II, FINA Foundation Gallery and Orientation Theater, Barrel Vault, Hanley, Lamont, Rachofsky, and Stoffel Galleries, and Sculpture Garden

The Dallas Museum of Art presents a special two-part exhibition of two hundred works from the modern and contemporary holdings of the Hoffman, Rachofsky and Rose families, who together gifted their private collections and future acquisitions to the Museum in 2005. Fast Forward offers a preview of the Museum’s future modern and contemporary holdings and will be the first opportunity for the public to view these exceptional, once-private collections in a comprehensive manner. This landmark exhibition will be enhanced by additional promised gifts from Gayle and Paul Stoffel and other local patrons, as well as by works from the Museum’s collections.

Organized by guest curator María de Corral, Fast Forward will survey the vast wealth of ideas and forms that characterize the art of our time, including abstract expressionist, minimalist, pop, conceptual and post-modern works. This monumental exhibition will feature both established and emerging artists whose work ranges from paintings and sculptures to installations, video, sound, and new media. The 200 paintings on view were culled from a body of over 1,500 objects by approximately 500 different artists—including more than 900 works from the three collections and other private collections, and 650 works from the Dallas Museum of Art’s permanent collection. Comprehensive in scope, Fast Forward is presented in two parts; the first chapter opened November 19, 2006, and remaining on view as the second is unveiled on February 11, 2007.

On view through April 8, the first part of Fast Forward is presented in the Museum’s distinctive Barrel Vault, Quadrant Galleries, and Sculpture Garden. Organized thematically, the first chapter of the exhibition will present abstract expressionist paintings by Willem de Kooning, Franz Kline, Jackson Pollock, and Mark Rothko, among others; masterpieces of the Italian Arte Povera movement, including works by Mario Merz and Giulio Paolini; and minimalist sculpture and paintings by such artists as Donald Judd and Ellsworth Kelly.

The second part of Fast Forward, which opens February 11 and will be on view through May 20 in the Museum’s Chilton Galleries, will explore such movements as pop art, conceptual art, and post-modernism, and will provide a broad survey of the work of younger artists grouped by stylistic affinities. This section will include large-scale installations and sculptures by artists such as Matthew Barney and Tom Friedman, and media, video, and sound works by Eija-Liisa Ahtila, Cardiff & Miller, and Bruce Nauman, among others. This chapter will also feature distinct monographic presentations of individual artists such as Janine Antoni, Jasper Johns, and Thomas Struth.

The Gift to Dallas
In February 2005 the Dallas Museum of Art announced the unprecedented gift of modern and contemporary collections from Marguerite and Robert Hoffman, Cindy and Howard Rachofsky, and Deedie and Rusty Rose. The idea behind the joint gift came from the Hoffmans, who at the time co-chaired the Centennial Campaign, which was launched in 2003–04 to ensure the Dallas Museum of Art’s continuing stability and growth. To jumpstart the campaign, the Hoffmans issued a bold challenge: If the Museum reached its goal for the first phase of the campaign, they would bequeath to the Dallas Museum of Art their art collection and an endowment to care for the collection as well as make a generous gift to the campaign. The Rachofskys quickly joined and pledged their Richard Meier–designed House, an operating endowment to allow the House to be used for public purposes, and their extraordinary collection, to which they added outright gifts of artworks and campaign funds. The Roses followed by committing their collection, outright gifts of a number of artworks, and a major contribution of funds to the campaign.

The joint collection gift is believed to be the first of its kind for museums in the United States and marks an important example of cultural leadership joining together to vest the city with their distinguished collections. Thanks to the enormous generosity of the Hoffmans, Rachofskys and Roses, as well as other individual and foundation sources, the Dallas Museum of Art’s Centennial Campaign has raised $133.5 million of its $185 million goal to date.

Image: Gerhard Richter, Two Candles (Zwei Kerzen), 1982, oil on canvas, Collection of Marguerite and Robert Hoffman, © Gerhard Richter