Dia:Beacon

The Dia:Beacon trip was an interesting experience for me. To be quite honest, I’m not a fan of modern art, but I tried to enter the museum with an open mind. My first thought upon arriving at the museum was that the building was beautiful. The architecture was very interesting and I loved the big, open spaces. (I also thought, having grown up in the Hudson River Valley, that the area was gorgeous). However, I was less enthusiastic about some of the collections that were actually in the museum. Perhaps Robert Ryman’s disappointed me the most. As I said, I tried to be very open-minded about the exhibits in this museum, but I honestly could not find anything artistic about white canvases. Admittedly, he was making a bold statement by having the nerve to show something so plain, but I don’t think that warranted an exhibition in a museum. In fact, walking into his collection made me angry – how could something that takes no talent be displayed as though it was art? Perhaps I just don’t understand it, but I did not like his collection at all.

However, there were some exhibits that I did like. John Chamberlain’s “The Privet” was very visually interesting – I enjoyed the colors and the sheer scale of the piece. I liked the fact that it was crafted out of metal, but from far away seemed to have a less substantial texture. Fred Sandback’s string sculptures were also very interesting. I found it interesting how he was able to create 3D space from a one-dimensional object. Finally, Richard Serra’s Torqued Ellipse I, Torqued Ellipse II, and Double Torqued Ellipse were fascinating because they incorporated an interactive element – I liked how one could see both the inside and the outside of such a huge sculpture.