A Saturday at Dia: Beacon

Dia: Beacon, Riggio Galleries is a museum located in Beacon, a small city in Upstate New York. We drove to the museum, it took us about 1 hour and a half for each side but it’s definitely worth it. The landscape, especially in this time of the year, it’s astonishing. S

ome of my friends, who advised me to go there several times, told me I could take the train or the shuttle bus and stay there the whole weekend if I wanted. Beacon is such a lovely city, with lots of vintage stores and galleries that you actually consider to stay there for a whole month! But my goal this time was visiting the Riggio Galleries, which is the museum for The Dia’s Art Foundation collection of art. The building was previously a printing plant built-in 1929 by Nabisco and was renovated by Dia with the help of the artist Robert Irwin and architects Alan Koch, Lyn Rice, Galia Solomonoff and Linda Taalman.

The museum was a pioneer in the conversion of industrial buildings for the installation of contemporary art. The museum’s huge spaces are perfect for large-scale installations, paintings, and sculptures that are a crucial part of the permanent exhibition. The most amazing thing about this museum is the fact that each gallery was designed especially for the art it displays. Richard Serra’s “Elevational Edge” is a good example of this. The floor is sloping in order for the sculpture to be straight. Andy Warhol’s “Shadows” is displayed in a single room as a 350 linear feet installation. Serra’s “Torqued Ellipses” were beautifully placed in a room where the light reflects in the sculptures creating amazing shadows of the window frames. Louise Bourgeois’ “ crouching Spider” is displayed in a small room in the attic, making it even more intimidating than it is.

I was truly impressed by the curated collection displayed and by the museum itself. The amount of detail every space has is very inspiring for architects and art lovers. Even the cafeteria and the library couldn’t be more perfect. The cafeteria has an amazing black bean burger In brioche bread that you can eat while reading a book from one of your newly found favorite artists. My next trip will definitely be to the Magazino Museum and to the T House by Steven Holl.