Wide receivers and cheerleaders aren’t the only things dazzling the eye at the new Cowboys Stadium. We take you on a tour of the amazing grand-scaled contemporary art works, curated for the new arena by a superstar council of advisors.
Image: Franz Ackermann’s Coming Home and (Meet Me) At the Waterfall (2009), acrylic on wall. The German artist devised a pair of landscapes that wrap around the stadium’s Southwest Monumental Staircase. Ackermann executed the work using a projector, plus eight other artists as assistants.
There are certain names that Dallas Cowboy fans are accustomed to seeing hanging on their hometown stadium walls: Ring of Honor superstars Bob Lilly, Tony Dorsett, Emmitt Smith, et al. There are, however, names that might come as a surprise: Trenton Doyle Hancock, Teresita Fernandez, Olafur Eliasson — all superstar contemporary artists. Indeed, they all share wall space at the new $1.15 billion Cowboys Stadium — the latter by way of mirrored glass, anodized aluminum, color foil and powder-coated steel.
Image left: Mel Bochner’s Win! (2009), acrylic on wall. The largest ever of Bochner’s “Thesaurus” paintings, the 38 foot by 33 foot work combines everything from hackneyed sports-writing terms to expletives a fan might yell. Image right: Olafur Eliasson’s Moving stars takes time (2008), stainless steel, polished stainless steel, glass mirror, color effect filter glass, color foil, powder-coated steel and steel cable. The work recalls a highly polished, counterbalanced solar system.
Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones and his wife Gene Jones launched an unprecedented art program for the Cowboys’ new home, colliding the two normally diverse worlds of arenas and art. Together, the Joneses launched an initiative to commission contemporary artists to create monumental, site-specific installations in the new stadium — works that will provoke sports fans to stop and study Annette Lawrence’s stretched-cable sculpture, or for a concertgoer to marvel at the rows and rows of Mel Bochner’s painted text exclamations. “From top to bottom,” says Jerry, “[We took] a new approach to what a national sports arena can be.” With the help of their daughter Charlotte Anderson and niece Melissa Meeks (no coincidence that Meeks works for benevolent art collectors Cindy and Howard Rachofsky, coordinating the annual fund-raising art auction Two x Two for AIDS and Art, at The Rachofsky House), an advisory council was formed, embarking on a worldwide search for contemporary artists who were up for the challenge of installing large-scale works that can stand the test of time — and the rigors of shuffling crowds, varying temperatures and the occasional flying nacho. For this ongoing project, the top-notch council — Howard Rachofsky himself, plus collector Gayle Stoffel, the Museum of Modern Art’s chief curator Michael Auping and the Dallas Museum of Art’s curator of contemporary art Charlie Wylie — evaluates and recommends artists and their works. Mary Zlot of the San Francisco art-advisory firm Mary Zlot & Associates provides her expertise in facilitating the program. The artists first chosen — both well established and emerging — were invited to the stadium while it was under construction to take in the light, the depth of space and the various ceiling heights for their future creations. The collaboration has so far resulted in 19 works of art, a mix of site-specific installations and acquired pieces. Each work has an underlying theme relating to the high energy of sporting matches or incorporates recognizable symbols of the Dallas Cowboys, such as their iconic star. “We’re making it possible for some of the world’s leading contemporary artists to create work on a scale unimaginable anywhere else,” says Gene Jones, “and we’re connecting new audiences with their work. The art program at Cowboys Stadium brings this dialogue between art and sport into the modern day.”
For more pictures of the stadium art, click on 'launch slideshow' above.
Photography by HKS Architects Inc., Ralph Cole Photography, Inc., Todd Eberle, Tom Fox, Richie Humphreys, James Smith, David Wharton Photography.
Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones and his wife Gene Jones launched an unprecedented art program for the Cowboys’ new home, colliding the two normally diverse worlds of arenas and art.