Entertainment

11:58 AM CST on Friday, December 30, 2005

By JANET KUTNER / The Dallas Morning News

The Dallas Museum of Art hit the jackpot with a gift of 800 contemporary objects valued at $215 million from local collectors Marguerite and Robert Hoffman, Deedie and Rusty Rose, and Cindy and Howard Rachofsky. It was an unusual year in other ways, some good, others not so.

The Nasher Sculpture Center saw a huge surge in attendance after mounting a "Saturday Night in the City" campaign that drew young crowds eager to partake of food, wine and art under the stars. The Dallas Center for Contemporary Art upped the ante with a New York-style show of digital paintings that moved. Two galleries passed benchmarks: 20 years for Barry Whistler, 10 for Photographs Do Not Bend.

The Meadows Museum suffered a setback with director Edmund "Ted" Pillsbury's resignation after less than two years on the job. And Angstrom owner David Quadrini put a temporary hold on his Dallas operation to focus on his new gallery in Los Angeles, leaving a gaping hole for high-energy art on the edge.

Donors put a charge into the local arts scene

"Contemporary" was the big-ticket word for 2005 – and not just because of the institution-changing gift of 800 contemporary treasures to the Dallas Museum of Art. A Richard Prince cowboy set the world record for a photograph sold at auction, topping hallowed names such as Man Ray and Edward Weston at $1,248,000. Prices for contemporary Chinese and Russian art soared as nouveaux-riche collectors in those countries sought status symbols with cachet.

Dallas got two new contemporary galleries: Goss in Uptown and Holly Johnson in the burgeoning art neighborhood of Dallas Design District. Recent paintings by Rosalyn Bodycomb, one of Mulcahy Modern's top talents, earned her a coveted Joan Mitchell Foundation grant of $25,000.

Local collectors Gayle and Paul Stoffel made ARTnews magazine's Top 200 in the world list for the first time, joining the Hoffmans, Rachofskys and Ray Nasher.

Even venues of a more traditional nature got in on the act. The Meadows Museum displayed drawings of Iraq that New York artist Steve Mumford did while working with a 2003-04 press pass from Artnet.com. The Trammell and Margaret Crow Collection of Asian Art mounted a show of wood reliefs by contemporary sculptors from Shandong, China.

Prominent dealers such as Marian Goodman of New York, who represents Anselm Kiefer and Gerhard Richter, reported that sales at the recent Art Basel Miami fair doubled those of last year.

It's not limited to big money. Randall Garrett, owner of the plucky little gallery Plush, is becoming a regular at alternative art fairs cropping up around the country, one more sign of contemporary art on the upswing.

E-mail jkutner@dallasnews.com

'Anselm Kiefer: Heaven and Earth'
Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, through Jan. 8.

Amon Carter Museum

Mann im Wald (Man in the Forest), 1971 by Anselm Kiefer

A richly textured and deeply moving tribute to an artist who grapples with the big issues: good vs. evil, innocence and guilt, church and state.

'Gauguin and Impressionism'
Kimbell Art Museum, Fort Worth, through March 26

A post-impressionist pioneer famous for paintings of exotic Tahitian women tackled tamer subjects before he hit 30.

'Robert Ryman'
Dallas Museum of Art, through April 2

This painter favored by local collectors, whose work is both minimalist and expressive, achieves enormous variety with predominantly white palettes and square formats.

'Dan Flavin: A Retrospective'
Modern of Fort Worth

Metaphysical magic accomplished with simple fluorescent bulbs by the late artist who made light itself his medium.

Paul Gauguin's To Make a Bouquet, 1880

'Diane Arbus Revelations'
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

One of the biggest hits of the season was a downer, filled with ineffably sad images of social misfits by the celebrated photographer who committed suicide at age 48.

'Prelude to Spanish Modernism: Fortuny to Picasso'
Meadows Museum, through Feb. 26

Spanish expatriates embraced the international avant-garde after moving to Paris in the 19th century, paving the way for Picasso 30 years later.

'Hathshepsut: From Queen to Pharoah'
De Young Museum, San Francisco, through Feb. 5

Ancient Egyptian treasures tell a fascinating tale of a female ruler who broke the glass ceiling long before anyone had heard of women's lib, and paid the price by having her image wiped off the faces of colossal monuments. Coming to the Kimbell in August.

'In the American West: Photographs by Richard Avedon'
Amon Carter Museum, Fort Worth, through Jan. 8

A man who photographed some of the most beautiful fashion models in the world confronts viewers with heroic, larger-than-life images of unheroic characters such as coal miners, carnies and drifters.

Corcoran Gallery of Art, D.C.

Gordon Parks' Ethel Shariff in Chicago, 1963

'Gordon Parks: Half Past Autumn'
Dallas Museum of Art

The show provided insight into the astonishingly productive career of a 93-year-old photographer who has turned his camera on everything from race riots to Paris fashion.

'David Smith: Drawing and Sculpture'
Nasher Sculpture Center

One thing leads to another in the work of the late 20th-century master who was equally adept at drawing on paper and drawing in space.