The Dia Foundation has long focused on in-depth presentations of individual artists' work, and the same is true at this museum. Wear your most comfortable walking shoes and allow several hours. Exhibition space totals 240,000 square feet, and it all deserves careful viewing. With 22 artists represented, that's almost 11,000 square feet of space per exhibitor, an unheard-of figure at most museums.
The building itself is a former box-printing facility that was built in 1929. Refurbished, it now exhibits to maximum effect a collection of significant artists from the last half-century. (One can only imagine the cost of all that white paint alone for the interior surfaces.) The ceiling throughout most of the building rises and falls in accordion-like folds, with windows inset on every other fold. The result is natural light throughout the expansive space.
Highlights of the collection include Richard Serra's towering arcs of steel, Robert Ryman's white paintings, Fred Sandback's string sculptures, Richard Chamberlain's crushed automobile part constructions, Dan Flavins's fluorescent light installations, and Sol LeWitt's obsessive wall drawings.
The names may be unfamiliar to the casual arts viewer, but the museum is well worth the trip. The scale of the pieces, the volume of work by each artist, and the immensity of the place make this a museum experience like no other. The work is serious, but there's a playfulness to the installations and a continual sense of surprise as one walks through the galleries. Rather than intrusive wall texts, there are laminated information sheets available on each artist. Way-too-comfortable couches and seats are scattered throughout for resting sore feet -- or contemplating art.
