Dia:Beacon Shuffle

I had plans yesterday - two sets of them.  They were both canceled because of forces greater than myself.  "What to do on an impromptu day to myself?", I asked.  I know - go visit my beloved Richard Serra sculptures over in Beacon... a sure thing to lift the spirits and get the creative juices flowing.   I was the first visitor through the doors and for a while, felt like I had the enormous renovated warehouse all to myself, which, as it turned out, was exactly what I needed to enable me to really "see" the art.

The first exhibit I visited had the most profound effect on me of the day.  Imi Knoebel's "24 Colors - for Blinky" was, at first glance, something I wanted to walk right by.  A series of 24 large seemingly randomly shaped panels, each painted a single color... yellow, blue, red, etc.  Some looked like states, others like cartoon shapes, and others like an enlargement of a paper scrap that was leftover from when you sut come pictures out of a magazine to make a collage.  They initially reminded me of some student art that one person in particular did in college that I hated - the student being one of those who you're sure only got in to art school because their parents were wealthy.  But I was alone with these paintings and in the mood to play, so I decided to give this exhibit a chance.  I didn't expect anything, other than expecting not to like it.  The exhibit is in two giant long and wide rooms with plenty of space to look at the paintings from far away, so I did.  I stood back.  And then, I decided I wanted to look at them from close up.  So I did. 

I walked very slowly toward the first painting, and as I did, something very interesting happened.  I noticed that the field of color started to engulf my entire field of vision.  I was now standing in an entirely yellow world!  It was a little disconcerting every time this happened along my way through the gallery.  At a certain point of focus, I could no longer tell how far away I was from the painting... or close to it, for that matter - everything just went into a blur and my sense of space was totally thrown off.  I was inches from the painting, but felt as if I was in a giant expanse or like I was touching it, which, rest assured, I wasn't.  The next fascinating phenomenon was when I would then walk slowly away from each painting, still facing it, walking slowly backwards (I  knew I wouldn't trip over anyone because I was still alone and was the entire time in this gallery).  At a certain point, the color in the center of the painting would appear darker and seen to recede in to space, the color near the edge would seem to glow and the space around the outside of the painting - and this was the part that actually made me laugh out loud - would glow in the complimentary color of the painting.  The yellow one glowed purple, for instance.

It was totally amazing to have these huge panels actually come alive because of a visual trick of color and space.  I really wasn't expecting it.  It didn't even happen with each painting - some were too glossy and I could see my reflection in them, but even those gave another sense of space and color that was interesting enough that I tried this with each and every panel.  The guards probably thought I was a little bit of a nutcase, but I didn't care.  I can't say I know exactly the artist's intent for these works, but I don't really like to play that game.  These works spoke to me.  They disrupted my sense of expectation (re. I didn't even want to look at this at first) and pre-conceived notions (re. I thought it was stupid).  I loved happening upon something that I really didn't understand at first and by the time I left the museum feeling as if I had been tickled from head to toe and like it was my birthday and like  each one of these was a cake just for me.  And then of course there are the Serra pieces, and that was the icing.

Imi Knoebel, 24 Colors - for Blinky, 1977. Photo: Bill Jacobson.

Imi Knoebel, 24 Colors - for Blinky, 1977. Photo: Bill Jacobson.

Photo from http://www.diabeacon.org/exhibitions/main/10

Imi Knoebel, 24 Colors - for Blinky, 1977. Photo: Bill Jacobson.