"I'm Takin' a [Train] on the Hudson River Line"

It's been beautiful weather in NYC, even a little cool.  This morning I flew down to Grand Central to catch a train up to Beacon, New York to visit the Dia: Beacon museum I have heard so much about.  My OCD finally paid off!  I had done some reading about the Dia and read the train ride was really nice, especially if you sat on the left side because the tracks follow the east side of the Hudson River.  So that's what I did and it was a very pretty ride.

Grand Central Terminal

I am probably the only person who took a picture of my train!

Before boarding, I stopped in the ladies' room and got really tickled at this sign located just above the hand dryers.  Huummmmm....

Lots of pretty spots along the way once we got out of the city

The train trip is about 80 minutes from NYC.  I hopped off at the Beacon stop and headed out to find the path to the museum.  I had also read that the first directional sign you see has arrows pointing both ways!  I guess that just means you can't go wrong.

The walk to the museum was about ten minutes.  Along the way the views out over the Hudson were striking.

I arrived at the museum, got a sandwich and then started my visit.

The museum space is an old Nabisco box printing factory.  Its gallery spaces are huge with great old floors that still bear the marks from the box factory days.  Most of the artists represented in the museum are American, with a heavy emphasis on large sculptures and abstract expressionism from 1960 and later.  There were quite a few artists I was not familiar with but a lot that I was.  All the gallery spaces were arranged for the particular artist installed there.  Sol LeWitt's line drawings were huge and drawn directly on the walls.  Jane E, I thought that he would have been great friends with your friend at Colony Music!  These photos can't truly show how intricate these drawings are.   As I stood looking at them, I kept trying to think of what it reminded me of.  Finally I got it!  My old Spirograph, which by the way, was one of my all time best gifts ever!  Thanks Aunt Joyce!

Michael Heizer's North, South, East and West sinks 20 feet below the floor of the Dia: Beacon.   A three-foot tall Plexiglas wall separates the sculpture from visitors who, I guess if the wall weren't there and if  the visitors weren't paying attention, could find themselves 20 feet below the floor of the Dia: Beacon!  The square (not shown in this photo) reminded me a lot of the 9/11 Memorial, absent the water.  The big square had a smaller square inside, like the memorial.

Richard Serra's Torqued Ellipses are massive.  I remember walking through these at MoMA in 2007 when they were installed in the sculpture garden there.  They give you a slight feeling of unease as you walk around and inside the sculptures...like they might just fall over at any moment and crush you!
To see a really cool video of the installation of the Richard Serra at MoMA, click here.  Once at the site, click for the menu and choose Installation/Sculpture Garden.

Louise Bourgeois's Crouching Spider is tall and leggy and creepy.  I am sure it evokes exactly what she intended.

A massive gallery houses twelve or more John Chamberlain sculptures.  As a former English teacher, I thought two were very interesting for their names:  Gondola T. S. Eliot (1981) and Gondola W.H. Auden (1981).  According to the information I read, Chamberlain discovered these poets, somehow identified with them and so named these two sculptures after them.  I don't have pictures of them, but, made out of truck axles, they lie on the floor and are more linear.

Gerhard Richter's Six Gray Mirrors

Upon my return, I went to dinner near the Plaza Hotel with a friend who is in college here.  Below are some photos of the bronze statue of General Sherman (anathema to all of us from the South).  This statue stands at the southeast entrance to Central Park.

Below, looking south, the Plaza Hotel on the right