Image: Courtesy Design Notes
I had the pleasure of traveling upstate yesterday to a place that I’ve wanted and planned to visit for a very long time. The Dia gallery in Beacon, NY is about 1h:30mins upstate in the Hudson valley, and the train ride through the changing autumn landscape is alone worth the trouble. I’ve often heard about how impressive Dia:Beacon is (especially in the fall), and I took joy in the fact that the grandeur of this place is not describable–so much so that I fear these words used to convince you are useless. So I’ll keep it short(er).
I’ve never been quite as humbled by modern art in such a massive way before, in a way I was convinced I might be crushed. The space itself is a work of art– comprised of massive boxed rooms with tall warehouse windows and high ceilings- so large that each piece is allowed to breathe heavily. The old Nabisco factory turned gallery is set on a hill near the river, soaking up all the natural light the art contained needs and deserves. The works are as big as the artists themselves; Joseph Beuys, Dan Flavin, Michael Heizer, Richard Serra, Andy Warhol. I sat for long periods in front of Gerhard Richter’s Six Grey Mirrors: pieces which will move you in a way that may be indescribable. I contemplated the parallels between my own fascinations with mathematics and patterns, and Sol Lewitt’s. I took home an instructional manual by Bruce Nauman on what I believe to be a guide to mentally separating your atomic particles and walking through walls.
But I admit that the Serra sculptures stole my heart (and I’m not even really into sculpture!). They are a reminder that modern art is relevant, that so often we ask the wrong questions when at a gallery: not how or what but why? I’m now convinced this is one of the reasons we can love modern artists, the fact that you can feel their intentions in the room long after they have gone. The fact that as you walk around Serra’s pieces, you can sense them and have a conversation with them, and try to understand them for yourself (the artist doesn’t require being understood). Modern art is more a lesson about how your body and mind reacts with it in a physical or psychological way. How a piece distorts a space, or more impressively how it distorts your perception of the world. How it bends light and creates shadows. Materials and process are nothing. Ordinary objects become something different. When you stand in that giant, quiet warehouse with 4 massive pieces of curled steel, all there is is you and the work.
Dia:Beacon has become one of my favorite spaces in the country to see art, and I plan to visit frequently. Naturally we all will experience this place differently, but I challenge you to go and take it in for yourself. If you cannot “understand” Modern Art here, it’s unlikely you will be able to ever understand it.
