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Tag: 70s

The Ryman Rooms at Dia:Beacon

Published October 6, 2009

Today and tomorrow will be my last articles for the foreseeable future on Dia:Beacon. Not that I won’t be writing about it reasonably soon – oh I will. It’s just that things do keep moving and I need to respect that.

This will come as a big shock to anyone who has read this blog before. The Ryman rooms in my opinion are remarkable. The rooms are just amazing – super active and really quiet all at the same time, in a way very similar to what used to be called ambient music (the Fripp/Eno variety). They have a quiet power that would not surprise you, or anyone familiar with Ryman’s work, but the surprises in the paint and especially the sensitivity of the application of the paint was just phenomenal – almost shocking in it’s sensitivity.

For those of you who think white is just white – take a look at these rooms. Every (white) painting shows a different depth and tone that is just not an accident. These are not a painted with a bunch of Titanium White to make them “cohesive”. They are clearly an expression that has taken it’s time to reflect and absorb what they are doing among each other.

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24 Colors—for Blinky at Dia:Beacon

Published October 4, 2009


I made my fist visit to Dia:Beacon on Sunday and I can tell you right now it won’t be my last. I have enough notes and thoughts to write about this trip for the next couple of weeks, but will constrain myself to just the next few days.

I want to talk a little bit about Imi Knoebel’s 24 Colors—for Blinky.

I’ve been interested in seeing this group of artworks since they were first installed in May of 2008.

24 Colors… as it is presented today is a new version from what was presented 30 years or so ago (not that I saw it then – this is the first time the work has been shown in the US). Knoebel’s work plays with the viewer and space in formal ways, surprising the viewer with unexpected juxtapositions as well as unexpected color choices. You can even “hear” Palermo’s voice in the work (although it is secondary – as the work is clearly that of Knoebel’s) These large and expansive artworks hold the viewer and with time the shapes extend themselves outward leading my mind to consider further possibilities that this work could continue to develop. I found the works full of this quality. This was impressive to me because they are all monochromatic (reductive) artworks.

There is a secondary subtext for this work – the loss of friendship between the two. Knoebel’s forms that make 24 Colors… are similar to a jigsaw puzzle that will never fit together and none of the artworks has a right angle – the works distill and speak of a messier thing than the formalities of either of the two’s work. The work speaks obliquely about friendship and loss.

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Donald Judd's concrete works re-open

Published October 2, 2009

The Chinati Foundation is re-opening of Donald Judd’s Freestanding Works in Concrete, as well as exhibitions of drawings by Judd and a selection of his horizontal wall works, on October 10. The concrete works have received an extensive conservation treatment over the past two years. To mark the occasion, Chinati is hosting a weekend featuring a series of talks on these works and their conservation treatment; an exhibition of seldom-displayed Judd works from the museum’s permanent collection.

On Saturday, October 10 at 3:00 PM there will be a conversation about the concrete works and the conservation work. Speakers will be; James Lawrence, Francesca Esmay, Bettina Landgrebe, and Richard Shiff. The lectures will be webcast live on Chinati’s website as well.

For More information visit the Chinati Foundation’s web site.

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An artifact from the past

Published September 1, 2009

The above graphic was at once interesting and a little bit unnecessary. Upon further review I also have to doubt it’s authenticity – I mean who has a typewriter with two type sizes? I do find the meat of the document curious though.

Thought you might as well.

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Bang on a Can performing Music for Airports at University of Maryland

Published March 30, 2009

“Ambient Music must be able to accommodate many levels of listening attention without enforcing one in particular; it must be as ignorable as it is interesting.”

Brian Eno – September 1978

Music for Airports is hardly ignorable. It has become a piece of music that has both alienated listeners as well as brought interested parties together. I’ve been able to see the music twice in my life; first at an installation at d.c. space in May of 1981 and lately, yesterday at the University of Maryland’s Bang on a Can Marathon.

The Maryland Bang on a Can Marathon is a first for the University, but hardly the first for Bang on a Can. In fact it is this type of marathon that they feel is the best way to experience the band. About 20 years ago the first such marathon was held at Exit Art in New York and the marathon has become a staple of their performance schedule ever since. A few years ago, Bang on a Can released a version of Music for Airports – created without tape loops (as the Eno version is) and have sporadically performed it live.

I admire the approach to staging the performance in the lobby of the Smith Center a location that is similar to an airport terminal – a transitional space within a larger structure, is an excellent choice of location. The performance is viewable from practically every angle in the building, and the music with it’s dreamlike sequences, make for a great foreground or backdrop to time spent in that space.

Bang on a Can’s performance was just as ignorable as the music they played, as well as just as unmistakable.

http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=3926729&server=vimeo.com&show_title=0&show_byline=0&show_portrait=0&color=00ADEF&fullscreen=1

Endnote: I love the fact that if you refer to Bang on a Can as BOAC, you are also calling them the British Overseas Airways Corporation, one of England’s first commercial airlines, following a merger in the 70’s it is now known as British Airways.

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