Dennis Oppenheim
The core of the Dennis Oppenheim Collection begins with 42 scale models that range from his early and important Land Art projects of the 1960s to those for the artist’s large-scale public art commissions of the past decade. Many have been on view in the Arts Center’s exhibition Dennis Oppenheim: Indoors, Outdoors (March-May 2005). The acquisition will continue with the gift of other existing models and drawings for these projects, and models and drawings for future public commissions. Drawings will reside in the Arts Center’s Architecture Study Center, and together these works establish a permanent site for the appreciation and study of this important aspect of Dennis Oppenheim’s work.
Mr. Oppenheim was moved to make the donation after visiting the Arts Center for the opening of his exhibition and seeing how the museum explores the intersection of modern art, design and architecture. “Price Tower Arts Center is showing work that moves from conventional sculpture toward something that I feel to be the beginnings of a new sculpture/architecture hybrid,” he states. “I feel that my work is at home here, and I am delighted that it will help this young institution to grow.”
The artist recognized the enormous meaning that his architecturally related sculpture would have at Price Tower Arts Center. As a result, Price Tower Arts Center now shares with the public, concepts of integrating architecture with the other arts. Following the legacies of Frank Lloyd Wright and Bruce Goff, Dennis Oppenheim’s work in the collection will provide a contemporary point of reference for the understanding of the relationship between art, architecture and design.