The centerpiece of the collection is a series of monumental sculptures by Richard Serra, installed where the rail sidings used to be – Dia:Beacon is housed in a converted Nabisco packaging factory.
Serra has bent and torqued enormous slabs of Cor-Ten steel into high tech elipses that fold over themselves creating dramatic negative spaces. The direct sunlight casts shadows that draw you deeper into the sculpture.
Serra’s most recent sculpture, 2000, spirals slowly and its walls are pitched at widening angles to the final sweep of steel hangs some five feet away from its base. It feels like entering a gorge - you keep wondering what lies ahead and how the sculpture will resolve itself. This creates a tension between you and the sculpture that is only released as you enter it's interior.
The amazing thing about Dia Beacon is the experience of sunlight in a contemporary art space. Works that are site specific play with this. These elliptical torques offer the most sublime experience of light as you wander inside them.
The days I visited Dia Beacon were absolutely freezing (I arrived during a wind/snow storm) so I sought out any work sited near solid patches of sunlight and just stood there trying to thaw out my tiny ass. This is so rare in a gallery where considerations of conservation need to be factored in but at Dia Beacon with it's wildly oversized sculptures made to last an eternity this convention is flouted. There is sunlight streaming in everywhere.
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