Day 3

Today we journeyed off through Grand Central Station and took a train out to visit the Dia Beacon. I had no idea what to expect visually, except for a few artists such as Joseph Beuys and Bruce Nauman that I knew had pieces there. Such a very desolate location for such “High Art”. After walking around the museum, with almost no one else visiting, I realized the importance of the location and why its such a unique experience to walk around with no one around you, and with blank white walls all over making the building seem already bigger than it already was. There were so many amazing artists that I admire that had work there. Donald Judd’s “untitled” piece of the synchronized steel boxes with colored Plexiglas was a favorite of mine, along with Robert Smithson’s “map of Broken Glass”. This glass, was beautifully broken in shards, sticking up at every angle, and making me feel slightly uncomfortable in an uneasy, threatening way. The pile of glass together makes for an interesting color and layout. I so badly wanted to pick up a piece or move it around.
Although called “Conceptual minimalists”, I would not justify all of the work as highly conceptual, but minimal, yes. Since I love color and anything that incorporates bright changing colors, I enjoyed Andy Warhol’s “Disco Décor” a series of screen prints he referred to as merely “shadows” or what could justify a shadow. They all contained only 2 colors on each panel, black, and another vibrant color. The other great sculpture I absolutely loved, and spent the longest time with was Richard Serra’s “Torqued Ellpise” Series. I ended up running in and out of all three of the sculptures and was so amazed at how massive they were in person! I did however get turned off from the conceptual minimalists art that consisted of black white canvases, string installations, and a serried of patters incorporating geometric shapes. Those pieces were very boring for me, and I walked through them pretty quickly.
Lastly, I was so excited to see Sol LeWitt’s Drawing Series with the numerous walls filled with hand drawn patterns, shapes, and mathematical forms in graphite. It amazes me to see such detail in large scale work. The only other artist who turned me onto their work almost immediately was Bruce Nauman’s neon light pieces. They were playful and humorous which drew my attention much faster than the walls elsewhere.