Dia Beacon
Dia: Beacon
Lately I've been attracted to amorphous sculpture (specifically formless work that is created from line). Fred Sandback happened upon the idea of creating linear sculpture somewhat casually but turned it into his thing. This thing was interesting to him because of the implied form that was created in the space between the string and the space it was created within. A relationship of the line to it's surroundings. It is possibly the most simple way of dividing under and over, left and right. Without color and material as influence it is about just that: space.
Michael Heizer created a series of pieces that are negative space. After dealing with the false space created by Sandback's string sculptures I thought I was seeing an illusion something like staring at a green light and seeing red spots afterward. But, no, these are actually enormous inverted sculptures that begin at floor level and lurch into the subterranean about 4 body lengths. The four sculptures are quite enormous, created from steel and are inverted geometric forms such as a cone or a cylinder. They are not perfect representations of geometric forms but they have subtle anomalies that made me walk all around the piece to confirm their existence. Speaking of walking around the pieces; the combination of the hardness of the material and the fact that viewing the pieces required leaning over them in a fashion only done over guard rails at the Grand Canyon had me in a state of giddy panic and vertigo.
Another guy who is famous for his enormous steel sculptures is Richard Serra. If you've ever seen his "drawings" made of oil crayon on paper you may not have registered him as an amazing artist (they lack a bit in comparison). I had the great fortune of seeing large quantities of both. Serra's sculptures are monumental and fairly simple at first. They are intertwined half circles made from steel that has not been treated and thus has the marking of manufacture and as much rust as the chemical structure will allow. The monumental forms are experienced by walking around and through them. You may begin by walking around the parameter of the form until the edge you are following ends and presents a new wall to follow. Walking in the circles in various states of enclosure is like being in a labyrinth. If you are a small child or a 30-something art teacher you may find yourself walking really fast around it to induce a feeling like twirling in the grass until you fall down. Dizziness must have something to do with large-scale steel sculpture.
Robert Smithson is probably best known for his earth art and site-specific piece Spiral Jetty in Utah. However, some site specific (based on materials, not place of installation) pieces that were on view were a piece that consists of a pile of gravel approximately 5 feet wide, 3 feet tall and diagonally intersected by a large mirror. Another piece was a map of a fictional place created out of tons of broken glass. Some shards were around a foot in any direction but they got much smaller. The overall installation was quite large- maybe 12 feet long. They had a feeling of abandonment and construction. It's a strange feeling to see something that seems to be garbage or in a state of inorganic decay in a museum full of art that is so intensely perfect. Compared with the bulk of the other minimalist, conceptual, and geometric work, this had a very visceral quality.
In addition to being interested in the pieces themselves I was curious about how some were installed and maintained. It's one thing to hang a painting that was created archivally and quite another to install a pile of gravel with just the right amount of a large mirror exposed. In conversation with gallery workers I found out that the Robert Smithson pieces were installed by Beacon's art handlers based on sketches and old photos. Since Smithson had already passed away when they acquired the work they were unable to have the artist and his team come in for installation. Another interesting thing that I learned was about how they clean his installation of a pile of broken glass. Apparently they have a short scaffolding that they use to prop themselves over the piece and use canned air to dust the piece.
The Dia Art Foundation is an internationally renowned non-profit institution that supports fine art. While in New York I saw a collection whose galleries were named after Louise and Leonard Reggio for their significant contribution that allowed this museum to come to fruition. The foundation supports projects and maintains several collections in New York and the western United States. Dia:Beacon is located in Beacon, NY which is an hour and a half train ride from the city to another world. The Dia Art Foundation's museum in the Hudson Valley is something that would be difficult to recreate in a location that costs hundreds per inch in real estate. The 300,000 square foot former box-printing facility boasts expansive space and natural light that is perfect for works that are either massive in scale or need room to breathe. The museum shows a collection of some of the most significant artists of the last half of the 20th century, each with their own gallery within the immense space.
These are some artists whose work was particularly interesting at this museum:
My very first gut response when viewing the Sol LeWitt Drawing was, "Oh, my god. I feel like I'm reading the diary of an obsessive crazy person" It was so repetitive, so perfect, so big. I couldn't stop staring. I was sucked into what must have been someone's calculated descent into madness. Then I found out it took months to create by a dozen people and I felt a little better. Sol LeWitt's drawings are the manifestation of an idea. In his writing about conceptual art he says, " All decisions are made beforehand, so execution becomes a perfunctory affair." His concept was conceived in 1968 but only completed on Dia Beacon's walls in 2003. These monumental drawings fill two large symmetrical galleries and use only straight, evenly spaced lines in the colors red, blue, black and yellow (printing colors) and graphite. The even lines are within evenly sized boxes which are within evenly sized boxes that are filled with evenly spaced diagonal and straight lines. There are no arbitrary, subjective, or expressive qualities entering into the piece. However unlike some conceptual artists he often capitalizes on the circumstances of creation such as using crayon instead of pencil or the varying heights of the installers and periods of exhaustion must have in some way impacted the lines. I both love and hate art like this. I love and hate that is excludes the idea of improvisation beyond the use of a slightly different medium than originally chosen. I love the possibility that art can be simply about an idea (however inaccessible it is even when the work is manifested). The curator of this work, Lynne Cooke, described the piece as a "playfully inventive repertoire" which I think is generous or maybe we just have differing senses of humor. Either way I really enjoy this piece.
Lately I've been attracted to amorphous sculpture (specifically formless work that is created from line). Fred Sandback happened upon the idea of creating linear sculpture somewhat casually but turned it into his thing. This thing was interesting to him because of the implied form that was created in the space between the string and the space it was created within. A relationship of the line to it's surroundings. It is possibly the most simple way of dividing under and over, left and right. Without color and material as influence it is about just that: space.
Michael Heizer created a series of pieces that are negative space. After dealing with the false space created by Sandback's string sculptures I thought I was seeing an illusion something like staring at a green light and seeing red spots afterward. But, no, these are actually enormous inverted sculptures that begin at floor level and lurch into the subterranean about 4 body lengths. The four sculptures are quite enormous, created from steel and are inverted geometric forms such as a cone or a cylinder. They are not perfect representations of geometric forms but they have subtle anomalies that made me walk all around the piece to confirm their existence. Speaking of walking around the pieces; the combination of the hardness of the material and the fact that viewing the pieces required leaning over them in a fashion only done over guard rails at the Grand Canyon had me in a state of giddy panic and vertigo.
Another guy who is famous for his enormous steel sculptures is Richard Serra. If you've ever seen his "drawings" made of oil crayon on paper you may not have registered him as an amazing artist (they lack a bit in comparison). I had the great fortune of seeing large quantities of both. Serra's sculptures are monumental and fairly simple at first. They are intertwined half circles made from steel that has not been treated and thus has the marking of manufacture and as much rust as the chemical structure will allow. The monumental forms are experienced by walking around and through them. You may begin by walking around the parameter of the form until the edge you are following ends and presents a new wall to follow. Walking in the circles in various states of enclosure is like being in a labyrinth. If you are a small child or a 30-something art teacher you may find yourself walking really fast around it to induce a feeling like twirling in the grass until you fall down. Dizziness must have something to do with large-scale steel sculpture.
Robert Smithson is probably best known for his earth art and site-specific piece Spiral Jetty in Utah. However, some site specific (based on materials, not place of installation) pieces that were on view were a piece that consists of a pile of gravel approximately 5 feet wide, 3 feet tall and diagonally intersected by a large mirror. Another piece was a map of a fictional place created out of tons of broken glass. Some shards were around a foot in any direction but they got much smaller. The overall installation was quite large- maybe 12 feet long. They had a feeling of abandonment and construction. It's a strange feeling to see something that seems to be garbage or in a state of inorganic decay in a museum full of art that is so intensely perfect. Compared with the bulk of the other minimalist, conceptual, and geometric work, this had a very visceral quality.
In addition to being interested in the pieces themselves I was curious about how some were installed and maintained. It's one thing to hang a painting that was created archivally and quite another to install a pile of gravel with just the right amount of a large mirror exposed. In conversation with gallery workers I found out that the Robert Smithson pieces were installed by Beacon's art handlers based on sketches and old photos. Since Smithson had already passed away when they acquired the work they were unable to have the artist and his team come in for installation. Another interesting thing that I learned was about how they clean his installation of a pile of broken glass. Apparently they have a short scaffolding that they use to prop themselves over the piece and use canned air to dust the piece.
Also of note and interest was a lovely collection of Louise Bourgeois' organic and womblike sculptures, a basement full of Bruce Nauman's raunchy lights and film and a room full of Dan Flavin's light sculptures that have me wondering what will happen as they phase out that type of bulb?
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