![]() ![]() Instead of creating a new piece of architecture, Irwin-who often works with “given” spaces-adapted the plant to the requirements of the art on display. As Irwin knows so well, rooms often look best when occupied mainly by daylight. Whatever one’s views of the art, Dia:Beacon is a marvelous place of luxuriant light, open space, and serene galleries. A tripartite building and train shed are joined together into what is now called the Riggio galleries (named after the family of the founder of Barnes and Noble, who contributed much of the funding). The artist Robert Irwin, himself a significant figure of the Dia generation, oversaw the renovation in consultation with the architecture firm OpenOffice and the Dia staff-notably the director, Michael Govan, and the curator, Lynne Cooke. Located on the eastern bank of the Hudson in the river town of Beacon, about an hour and a half by train or car from New York, the 300,000-square-foot facility presents the work of 24 artists favored by Dia. No less important, the working-class spirit symbolized their disdain for both conventional museum practice, with its pedigreed genealogies and “this begat that” attitude, and the romantic cult of the genius.ĭia:Beacon, which opened last week in a former Nabisco printing plant built in 1929, represents the radiant culmination of this loft sensibility. Artists of the time developed an approach, at once brusquely proletarian and intellectual, that flourished in this bracing atmosphere the lofts echoed their use of grids, series, and industrial materials. These no-nonsense spaces were open, sweeping, and sometimes epic in scale, with large, declarative windows. Some lived in the cast-iron district of Soho, in lofts originally constructed for industrial use. In the sixties, however, many artists grew impatient with these traditional settings and began to dream of less-confining environments. ![]() Photo: Michael GovanĬhurch, palace, house, museum: That’s where we usually situate art. Eye Dia: An untitles Dan Flavin sculpture (1970) stands before Robert Irwin's modified windows at Dia:Beacon. ![]()
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