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Today, although the day was cloudy, cold, and drizzly, I and some friends took the Metro North to Beacon, NY (one friend met us by car, coming from a different direction) to check out the art gallery at the Dia art foundation.
WOW! The is the best use of architecture to show off the art inside that I've ever seen. The space is a huge, almost 300,000 square foot former printing factory. In that space is art by Richard Serra--I've never seen much of his, except for the oppressive wall he built at the WTC years ago and was forced to remove because it split the only human friendly space in the area--the plaza--in two. So I wasn't prepared to like his work. In fact, my friend Claire, who was with us, did not. I love it. There's some on one of the upper floors but the best of his work was down in the basement--made up for four different tones of brown/metallic open cylinders, all of which you can enter and two of which are actually simple mazes.
There was an exhibit of gorgeous black and white photographs of factories by Bernd and Hilla Becher-empty of workers--the photos were all taken on overcast days and in the early mornings.
A generous helping of sculpture by Louise Bourgeois, including one of her giant spiders.
A room full of smashed car debris by John Chamberlain--he does J. G. Ballard proud :-).
Skylights throughout most of the space and window panes that are only clear in the middle of each window where you can see the beautiful outside scenery. The rest of the windows are in coated, textured glass (I know what I mean but don't know the name of the type of glass--not milk glass at all).
In good weather you can picnic on the property--there are tables.
Afterward we drove into Beacon for an early dinner and found a nice bar/restaurant on the Main Street called Max's.
A fantastic place to go for a day trip...if you buy your tickets online you get the train ticket plus museum admission for $28 total. Train ride is about 1 1/2 hours up there. I think it was a bit shorter on the way back as we caught a semi-express.
WOW! The is the best use of architecture to show off the art inside that I've ever seen. The space is a huge, almost 300,000 square foot former printing factory. In that space is art by Richard Serra--I've never seen much of his, except for the oppressive wall he built at the WTC years ago and was forced to remove because it split the only human friendly space in the area--the plaza--in two. So I wasn't prepared to like his work. In fact, my friend Claire, who was with us, did not. I love it. There's some on one of the upper floors but the best of his work was down in the basement--made up for four different tones of brown/metallic open cylinders, all of which you can enter and two of which are actually simple mazes.
There was an exhibit of gorgeous black and white photographs of factories by Bernd and Hilla Becher-empty of workers--the photos were all taken on overcast days and in the early mornings.
A generous helping of sculpture by Louise Bourgeois, including one of her giant spiders.
A room full of smashed car debris by John Chamberlain--he does J. G. Ballard proud :-).
Skylights throughout most of the space and window panes that are only clear in the middle of each window where you can see the beautiful outside scenery. The rest of the windows are in coated, textured glass (I know what I mean but don't know the name of the type of glass--not milk glass at all).
In good weather you can picnic on the property--there are tables.
Afterward we drove into Beacon for an early dinner and found a nice bar/restaurant on the Main Street called Max's.
A fantastic place to go for a day trip...if you buy your tickets online you get the train ticket plus museum admission for $28 total. Train ride is about 1 1/2 hours up there. I think it was a bit shorter on the way back as we caught a semi-express.