beautiful

James Turrell,
Meeting, 1986

I love being in the presence of Turrell's work.  The above piece was apparently included in PS1's show "September 9/11".  The mental gymnastics I'd have to generate to view Turrell's light pieces in light of 9/11 are beyond my "capacitors"...

The "beautiful" of my post's title refers to this:

"My own concern about this subjective approach is somewhat different; it has to do with the neat fit of “September 11” with trauma discourse, and of this discourse with a prevalent mode of art viewing today. If Kant asked, “Is the work beautiful?” and Duchamp, “Is it art?” we tend to wonder, “How does it affect me?” Where we once spoke of “quality,” as judged by comparison with great work of the past, and then about “interest” and “criticality,” which are more socially synchronic than artistically diachronic in emphasis, we now often look for pathos, which cannot really be tested objectively or, when experienced as trauma, communicated with others much at all. One person’s punctum is another’s yawn."


Hal Foster. Review "September 11" Moma PS1, New York. ArtForum January 2012: pp 210-211

online