February 21st, 2009 §
Step through sculptures made of strings, see yourself reflected in what seems to be a volcano of glass, walk through a towering rusted spiral, gaze into huge, endless geometric pits, and imagine who wrote each of a set of 4,000 vintage postcards. Where else can you do all these things but at the amazing Dia:Beacon?
I’ve attended college in the Hudson Valley for four years, and only now, in my final semester, have I at last managed to visit Dia:Beacon, the sprawling contemporary art installation museum in Beacon, NY (located about an hour or so from New York City). Dia:Beacon has all the greats of contemporary art, including Richard Serra, Gerhard Richter, Donald Judd, and Agnes Martin, as well as a number of artists I’d never heard of before, but whose art fully engrosses you.
The museum is a playground of optical illusions. The stark white galleries immediately present you with the eye-numbing neons of Dan Flavin and then the meticulously layered pencil murals of Sol LeWitt, who seems a Dia favorite. Throughout your journey through the huge, echoing Dia warehouse, you constantly wonder: What is real? What am I looking at? What is this space?
Fred Sandback’s string sculptures (a view, at left) ask these questions playfully, creating larger-than-life rectangles and triangles that you know are flat and empty, but at the same time have deceiving depth, leaning against gallery walls as if discarded by the artist. On Kawara’s room of dated paintings from his ongoing Today series is a pristinely executed inquiry into time that manages to be both intimate and distant; the air is even ionized, and it feels somehow lighter as you inhale and exhale within the space.
Meanwhile, the gaping holes of Michael Heizer’s North, South, East, West (right) are an exploration into illusions of infinity, simultaneously mesmerizing and terrifying. And one could spend hours in Zoe Leonard’s You see I am here after all exhibition — reading the text and studying the subtle differences in printing of the 4,000 vintage postcards of Niagara Falls, collected by the artist over the course of the year, getting lost in the stories of this place and forgetting any sense of space around you altogether.
(Not to be missed, by the way, is their bookstore, which, though small in size, houses a treasure trove of books on art, design, and theory from around the world.)
All in all, the collections of the Dia, much like the installation art in general, defy description, and beg instead to be experienced. And after all, isn’t that the point?
Dia:Beacon, Reggio Galleries, 3 Beekman Street, Beacon NY 12508 | Zoe Leonard’s You see I am here after all exhibition is on view until September 9, 2009
January 8th, 2009 §
Here’s one more reason I have to go to Tokyo, and soon. The Museum Lab, a joint project between the Louvre and Dai Nippon Printing, is an experimental space in Tokyo, Japan that combines the high art of the Louvre with brand new technology. Exhibitions change every four to five months, and focus on one sole artwork, surrounded by multimedia setups that present extensive research on the painting or sculpture by the Louvre art historians.
The current exhibition is on The Slippers by Samuel von Hoogstraten. Because you have to pay to get into the Museum Lab “museum” area, the descriptions on the websites are teasers rather than thorough, but are nonetheless quite intriguing… You can learn about the Dutch Golden Age and its painting style, step into the room van Hoogstraten presents–exploring the importance of perspective for the artist (see above image), and even a space where you can share your own interpretations of the symbols/objects within the work.
I’m completely fascinated by these creative blends between art and technology–so I really wish I had the extra cash to take a trip to Tokyo and check out this museum! Hopefully this experiment will continue for a while (there have been four previous exhibitions, including a Gericault and a Titian) so we can all continue to see what new innovations this space can create. I’ll certainly have my eye on it–I wonder if any of these technologies will be offered or will catch on and be developed for other museums around the world?
Museum Lab website
December 29th, 2008 §
Here’s the best Christmas present a museum nerd could ever ask for. NPR is releasing a series of programs on today’s museums. Each one presents an in-depth but easy-to-understand summary of the challenges facing museums in the U.S.–everything from art crime to experimental architecture to education. Thoroughly researched, with quotes from all the great players in the field, each is a fascinating gem.
Listen at NPR’s ‘Museums in the 21st Century’ series webpage.
Via Museum Blogging.
November 23rd, 2008 §
Ever wanted to practice your child’s pose or downward dog surrounded by incredible works of art? Turns out you can — at UNC Chapel Hill’s Ackland Art Museum, where weekly yoga programs are offered in the Asian galleries. Although I was a little shocked at first at the idea of any sport-related anything being done in a museum, on second thought, yoga seems like the perfect activity in a calm, quiet, well-lit atmosphere surrounded by beautiful objects. Now, to convince my college museum to move yoga from the gym to the galleries…
Yoga in the Galleries, at the Ackland Art Museum
July 16th, 2008 §
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Wallcovering samples by Morris & Co. (London, England). From Left to Right: Wreath, Christchurch, Bramble, Apple, Ceiling, Honeysuckle; 1887. Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum, New York City. Image from exhibition website.
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Meandering aimlessly through museum websites earlier this summer, I came across a description of an exhibit at the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum called Multiple Choice: From Sample to Product. It wasn’t the name that drew me in, though — no, being the sucker for good, beautiful design that I am, it was an image of a French porcelain plate decorated with the various colors and glazes offered by the company. If you are at all like me — that is, if you love paper, patterns, color combinations, interior design, lace, typography, things handwritten or things letterpressed, or really anything, for example, that’s ever been showcased on the lovely blog design*sponge — then you absolutely must go see this beautiful little exhibit.
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Sample Book: The Della Robbia Papers, designed by O.W. Jaquis and published by P.P. Kellogg Division, United States Envelope Co., 1926. Smithsonian Institution Libraries. Image from exhibition website.
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This is the story of the little exhibit that could. It was supposed to close a month or two ago (or so the young woman at the admissions desk told me), but is staying open through September 1, and if you are in the New York area, you would do yourself a favor to go and see it. It’s not perfect, and there are no brochures anymore and no catalogue ever created, but these tiny, delicate, carefully-cut scraps of paper, rolls of handmade lace, and hand-numbered wallpaper samples cluster in the basement gallery in an array of beautiful colors that spread around the room. It will take you about a half-hour, an hour if you stretch it and read every description, to go through the exhibition; it’s a short trip, but well worth it. I wish the section on the “origin of the sample book” had been first — it would have provided, perhaps, a better introduction — but it’s irresistible either way to anyone who’d like to look at a lovely collection of objects. They range from samples of painted porcelain, to Japanese wallpapers, to lace, to artist’s tools.
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Sample book: A Descriptive Handbook of Modern Watercolor Pigments, written by J. Scott Taylor and published by Winsor and Newton, Ltd., late 19th century. Smithsonian Institution Libraries. Image from exhibition website.
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One of my favorite objects was this group of paper samples (above, left). Zoom in on the image to see a close up of the paper — the colors are named the most exotic, strange words: burnt sienna is “tobacco”, a dark sky blue is “gobelin”, and my favorite, a gray-lavender, is “gloaming”. If you need any word inspiration, this is the exhibit to go to — many of the samples, colors, and patterns are named with some lusciously descriptive words, like the “honeysuckle” or “bramble” patterns (above, right) by Morris & Co.
Also nice to check out at the Design Museum is the garden in the back. The garden is as big as the floor of the museum. Unfortunately, while they change exhibits (the Rococo show just ended), there’s only a small room with a selection of works from the permanent collection and this show that are open; but they have Friday night cocktails in the beautiful, sprawling garden. Can you tell from this review how much I love this charming little museum? Don’t even get me started on their great website, which has a blog, Youtube channel, and extensive websites on each of their exhibits… just get there yourself and immerse yourself in a world of samples!
Multiple Choice: From Sample to Product, at the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum, 2 East 91st St., New York City. | Now through September 1, 2008.
