Dia Art Foundation is a

nonprofit organization A nonprofit organization (NPO) or non-profit organisation, also known as a non-business entity, not-for-profit organization, or nonprofit institution, is a legal entity organized and operated for a collective, public or social benefit, in co ...

that initiates, supports, presents, and preserves art projects. It was established in 1974 by Philippa de Menil, the daughter of Houston arts patron

Dominique de Menil Dominique de Menil (née Schlumberger; March 23, 1908 – December 31, 1997) was a French-American art collector, philanthropist, founder of the Menil Collection and an heiress to the Schlumberger Limited oil-equipment fortune.Helfenstein, Josef ...

and an heiress to the

Schlumberger Schlumberger Limited (), doing business as SLB, is an oilfield services company. Schlumberger has four principal executive offices located in Paris, Houston, London, and The Hague. Schlumberger is the world's largest offshore drilling compa ...

oil exploration fortune; art dealer

Heiner Friedrich Heiner Friedrich (born April 14, 1938 in Stettin) is an art dealer and collector of minimal art and conceptual art.

Bob Colacello Bob Colacello (born 1947) is an American writer. Born in Bensonhurst, New York, and raised in Plainview, Long Island, he graduated from the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University in 1969, and also has an MFA degree in f ...

(September 1996)
Remains of the Dia
'' Vanity Fair''. Dia provides support to projects "whose nature or scale would preclude other funding sources." Dia holds a major collection of work by artists of the 1960s and 1970s, on view at

Dia Beacon Dia Beacon is the museum for the Dia Art Foundation's collection of art from the 1960s to the present and is one of the 11 locations and sites they manage. The museum, which opened in 2003, is situated on the banks of the Hudson River in Beacon, ...

that opened in the

Hudson Valley The Hudson Valley (also known as the Hudson River Valley) comprises the valley of the Hudson River and its adjacent communities in the U.S. state of New York. The region stretches from the Capital District including Albany and Troy south to ...

in 2003. Dia also presents exhibitions and programs at Dia Chelsea in New York City, located at 535, 541 and 545 West 22nd Street. In addition to its exhibition spaces at Dia Beacon and Dia Chelsea, Dia maintains and operates a constellation of commissions, long-term installations, and site-specific projects, notably focused on

land art Land art, variously known as Earth art, environmental art, and Earthworks, is an art movement that emerged in the 1960s and 1970s, largely associated with Great Britain and the United StatesArt in the modern era: A guide to styles, schools, & mov ...

, nationally and internationally. Dia's permanent collection holdings include artworks by artists who came to prominence during the 1960s and 1970s, including

Joseph Beuys Joseph Heinrich Beuys ( , ; 12 May 1921 – 23 January 1986) was a German artist, teacher, performance artist, and art theorist whose work reflected concepts of humanism, sociology, and anthroposophy. He was a founder of a provocative art mov ...

Dan Flavin Dan Flavin (April 1, 1933 – November 29, 1996) was an American minimalist artist famous for creating sculptural objects and installations from commercially available fluorescent light fixtures. Early life and career Daniel Nicholas Flavin ...

Donald Judd Donald Clarence Judd (June 3, 1928February 12, 1994) was an American artist associated with minimalism (a term he nonetheless stridently disavowed).Tate Modern websit"Tate Modern Past Exhibitions Donald Judd" Retrieved on February 19, 2009. In ...

Agnes Martin Agnes Bernice Martin (March 22, 1912 – December 16, 2004), was an American abstract painter. Her work has been defined as an "essay in discretion on inward-ness and silence". Although she is often considered or referred to as a minimalist, Mart ...

, and

Andy Warhol Andy Warhol (; born Andrew Warhola Jr.; August 6, 1928 – February 22, 1987) was an American visual artist, film director, and producer who was a leading figure in the visual art movement known as pop art. His works explore the relationsh ...

. The art of this period represented a radical departure in artistic practice and is often large in scale; it is occasionally ephemeral or site-specific. Currently, Dia commissions, supports, and presents site-specific installations and long-term exhibitions of work by these artists, as well as those of younger generations.

History

Early years

Heiner Friedrich Heiner Friedrich (born April 14, 1938 in Stettin) is an art dealer and collector of minimal art and conceptual art.Munich Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the States of Germany, German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the List of cities in Germany by popu ...

and

Cologne Cologne ( ; german: Köln ; ksh, Kölle ) is the largest city of the German western States of Germany, state of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) and the List of cities in Germany by population, fourth-most populous city of Germany with 1.1 m ...

which showed artists such as Andy Warhol, Cy Twombly, Donald Judd, and Dan Flavin. In 1973, Friedrich moved his galleries to New York City at 141 Wooster Street, now the site of ''The New York Earth Room''. That year Friedrich traveled to Houston to visit the

Rothko Chapel The Rothko Chapel is a wiktionary:nondenominational, non-denominational chapel in Houston, Texas, founded by John de Ménil, John and Dominique de Menil. The interior serves not only as a chapel, but also as a major work of modern art: on its wal ...

where he met

's assistant

Helen Winkler Helen may refer to: People * Helen of Troy, in Greek mythology, the most beautiful woman in the world * Helen (actress) (born 1938), Indian actress * Helen (given name), a given name (including a list of people with the name) Places * Helen, G ...

and was reintroduced to her daughter Philippa de Menil. Friedrich and Philippa de Menil would later both get divorces so they could marry each other in a 1979

Sufi Sufism ( ar, ''aṣ-ṣūfiyya''), also known as Tasawwuf ( ''at-taṣawwuf''), is a mystic body of religious practice, found mainly within Sunni Islam but also within Shia Islam, which is characterized by a focus on Islamic spirituality, ...

ceremony and get a marriage license in 1982.Hoban, Phoebe
Medicis for a Moment: The Collapse of the Dia Dream

New York Magazine ''New York'' is an American biweekly magazine concerned with life, culture, politics, and style generally, and with a particular emphasis on New York City. Founded by Milton Glaser and Clay Felker in 1968 as a competitor to ''The New Yorker'', ...

. November 25, 1985. Retrieved August 20, 2020. Friedrich, Winkler, and Philippa de Menil founded Dia in 1974. The goal of the organization was to fund artists creating work on scales or with underlying natures that the funding sources of the time could not support. Friedrich's plan was to create a funding system similar to

patronage Patronage is the support, encouragement, privilege, or financial aid that an organization or individual bestows on another. In the history of art, arts patronage refers to the support that kings, popes, and the wealthy have provided to artists su ...

systems from the

Renaissance The Renaissance ( , ) , from , with the same meanings. is a period in European history marking the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and covering the 15th and 16th centuries, characterized by an effort to revive and surpass ideas ...

Robert Whitman Robert Whitman (born 1935 in New York City) is an American artist best known for his seminal theater pieces of the early 1960s combining visual and sound images, actors, film, slides, and evocative props in environments of his own making. Since t ...

, a performance artist funded by Dia, stated that Friedrich "wanted to make a

Sistine Chapel The Sistine Chapel (; la, Sacellum Sixtinum; it, Cappella Sistina ) is a chapel in the Apostolic Palace, the official residence of the pope in Vatican City. Originally known as the ''Cappella Magna'' ('Great Chapel'), the chapel takes its name ...

, create a

Shakespeare William Shakespeare ( 26 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's nation ...

." Friedrich himself stated that, "The 20th century clearly stands beside the Renaissance as one of the most powerfully visual ages. We have artists of the magnitude of Titian, be it Andy Warhol; of the magnitude of Michelangelo, be it Dan Flavin; of the magnitude of Donatello, be it Walter De Maria. This is why we did Dia." Friedrich had the vision and art contacts, while Philippa de Menil was heir to the

oil fortune and had the money to support the idea. Philippa de Menil's husband, Francesco Pellizzi, was on the original six-member board, and Dominique and Christophe de Menil were on the advisory council. Dia got its name from the Greek word "dia" which means "conduit." Friedrich explained the name choice with "'Dia' was chosen as a transitory term for an institution that would not be eternal but would make possible the presence of artworks on an extended, long-term basis" Dia first patronized a group of artists that included

, John Chamberlain,

Walter De Maria Walter Joseph De MariaRoberta Smith (July 26, 2013)Walter De Maria, Artist on Grand Scale, Dies at 77 ''New York Times''. (October 1, 1935July 25, 2013) was an American artist, sculptor, illustrator and composer, who lived and worked in New Yor ...

La Monte Young La Monte Thornton Young (born October 14, 1935) is an American composer, musician, and performance artist recognized as one of the first American minimalist composers and a central figure in Fluxus and post-war avant-garde music. He is best kno ...

, and

Marian Zazeela Marian Zazeela (born April 15, 1940) is an American light artist, designer, calligrapher, painter and musician based in New York City. She was a member of the 1960s experimental music collective Theatre of Eternal Music, and is known for her collab ...

. These artists received stipends, studios, and archivists in anticipation of one-man museums that Dia planned for several of them. Kimmelman, Michael. (September 15, 1996)
At Dia, Fresh Wounds and a Fresh Start
''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

''. September 15, 1996. Retrieved August 22, 2020 Dia stayed away from press and was not well known through the '70s. The goal was for Dia to not have an identity and be a true "conduit" for the art works it was funding without adding themselves to it. An article by

Phoebe Hoban Phoebe Hoban is an American journalist perhaps known best for her biographies of the artists Jean Michel Basquiat ('' Basquiat: A Quick Killing in Art'', Viking 1998) and Alice Neel (''Alice Neel: The Art of not Sitting Pretty'', St. Martin's Pres ...

in 1985 called the foundation a "closely guarded secret" during this time period, references people calling it "the art Mafia," and notes that the organization didn't even have a letterhead. Basel 2012-08 Mattes 1 (225)

Following a series of performance works and temporary exhibitions at Friedrich's gallery in SoHo, including the "Dream Festival" by

and

, Dia installed its first public artwork in 1975 at the

Kunstmuseum Basel The Kunstmuseum Basel houses the oldest public art collection in the world and is generally considered to be the most important museum of art in Switzerland. It is listed as a heritage site of national significance. Its lineage extends back to t ...

, in

Basel , french: link=no, Bâlois(e), it, Basilese , neighboring_municipalities= Allschwil (BL), Hégenheim (FR-68), Binningen (BL), Birsfelden (BL), Bottmingen (BL), Huningue (FR-68), Münchenstein (BL), Muttenz (BL), Reinach (BL), Riehen (BS ...

, Switzerland. This artwork, ''Untitled (In memory of Urs Graf)'' by

, was installed in the museum's courtyard and consists of fluorescent tubes in varying colors outlining the space. This was followed in 1976 by a retrospective of six theater pieces by

In 1977 Friedrich's gallery space was transformed into a permanent exhibition of Walter De Maria's '' The New York Earth Room'' and Dia's offices were moved to 107 Franklin Street. Dia planned the opening of three other works in 1977: Walter De Maria's '' The Vertical Earth Kilometer'' in

Kassel Kassel (; in Germany, spelled Cassel until 1926) is a city on the Fulda River in northern Hesse, Germany. It is the administrative seat of the Regierungsbezirk Kassel and the district of the same name and had 201,048 inhabitants in December 2020 ...

Germany, and '' Lightning Field'' in

New Mexico ) , population_demonym = New Mexican ( es, Neomexicano, Neomejicano, Nuevo Mexicano) , seat = Santa Fe , LargestCity = Albuquerque , LargestMetro = Tiguex , OfficialLang = None , Languages = English, Spanish ( New Mexican), Navajo, Ker ...

, as well as a permanent, multicolored, light installation by Dan Flavin stretching across three platforms at

Grand Central Terminal Grand Central Terminal (GCT; also referred to as Grand Central Station or simply as Grand Central) is a commuter rail terminal located at 42nd Street and Park Avenue in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. Grand Central is the southern terminus ...

in New York. The same year Dia purchased a volcanic crater in

Arizona Arizona ( ; nv, Hoozdo Hahoodzo ; ood, Alĭ ṣonak ) is a state in the Southwestern United States. It is the 6th largest and the 14th most populous of the 50 states. Its capital and largest city is Phoenix. Arizona is part of the Fou ...

for

James Turrell James Turrell (born May 6, 1943) is an American artist known for his work within the Light and Space movement. Much of Turrell's career has been devoted to a still-unfinished work, ''Roden Crater'', a natural cinder cone crater located outside ...

for his ''

Roden Crater Roden Crater is a cinder cone type of volcanic cone from an extinct volcano, with a remaining interior volcanic crater. It is located approximately 50 miles northeast of the city of Flagstaff in northern Arizona, United States. Art project Ar ...

'' project (and later gave him approximately six million dollars to move the project forward).In 1979 the second location of Friedrich's gallery space, 393 West Broadway, was also given over to Walter De Maria for a permanent art installation, The Broken Kilometer. Dia continued purchasing buildings to create one-man museums, and in some cases living quartets, for their roster of artists. Starting in 1979, the foundation hired architect

Richard Gluckman Gluckman Tang Architects, (previously Gluckman Mayner Architects), is a New York City based architecture firm providing services in architecture, planning, and interior design. Established by Richard Gluckman in 1977, the firm is known for mini ...

and started looking for reinforced-concrete structures suitable for showing art. With his help 1979 saw the purchase and renovation of multiple sites including a former firehouse and church for the Dan Flavin Art Institute, Dick's Castle in

Garrison, New York Garrison is a hamlet in Putnam County, New York, United States. It is part of the town of Philipstown, on the east side of the Hudson River, across from the United States Military Academy at West Point. The Garrison Metro-North Railroad ...

(which was purchased for $1 million but later discovered was too expensive to renovate), and the Mercantile Exchange at 6 Harrison Street for Young and Zazeela to create '' Dream House'' (Dia spent approximately $4 million on buying and renovating the building and gave Young and Zazeela a budget of $500,000 a year for upkeep and artmaking.) This buying spree continued into the 1980s with the purchase of a building on West 19th street in 1980 for

spending $495,000 on the building and handing out $250,000 a year to Whitman for upkeep and art making, and the 1981 purchase of a former bank building in

Winchendon, Massachusetts Winchendon is a town in Worcester County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 10,364 at the 2020 census. The town includes the villages of Waterville and Winchendon Springs (also known as Spring Village). A census-designated place, ...

for

Fred Sandback Fred Sandback (August 29, 1943 – June 23, 2003) was an American minimalist conceptual-based sculptor known for his yarn sculptures, drawings, and prints. His estate is represented by David Zwirner, New York. Life and work Frederick Lane Sandb ...

to create a one-man museum in. The year 1980 also saw Dia open the Masjid al-Farah (later Dergah al-Farah), a

lodge Lodge is originally a term for a relatively small building, often associated with a larger one. Lodge or The Lodge may refer to: Buildings and structures Specific * The Lodge (Australia), the official Canberra residence of the Prime Ministe ...

replete with Flavin light works and living quarters for

Sheikh Sheikh (pronounced or ; ar, شيخ ' , mostly pronounced , plural ' )—also transliterated sheekh, sheyikh, shaykh, shayk, shekh, shaik and Shaikh, shak—is an honorific title in the Arabic language. It commonly designates a chief of a ...

Muzaffer Ozak Muzaffer Ozak (formally: Sheikh Muzaffer Özak Âșkî al-Jerrahi) (1916 – 12 February 1985) was a Turkish Muslim spiritual author, imam, and the 19th Grand Sheikh of the Halveti-Jerrahi Order of Dervishes, a traditional Ottoman Sufi order b ...

al-Jerrahi, in a former firehouse at 155 Mercer Street. The opening of the Sufi lodge was a reflection of de Menil's recent conversion to the path of

Sufi Islam Sufism ( ar, ''aṣ-ṣūfiyya''), also known as Tasawwuf ( ''at-taṣawwuf''), is a mystic body of religious practice, found mainly within Sunni Islam but also within Shia Islam, which is characterized by a focus on Islamic spirituality, r ...

and later ascension as spiritual guide to the Nur Ashki Jerrahi Order of

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

. Over this same time Friedrich and de Menil purchased the shuttered Fort D.A. Russell in

Marfa, Texas Marfa is a city in the high desert of the Trans-Pecos in far West Texas, between the Davis Mountains and Big Bend National Park. It is the county seat of Presidio County, Texas, Presidio County, and its population as of the 2010 United States Cens ...

, renamed it "The Art Museum of the Pecos," and planned to house works for multiple artists Dia funded. The 350 acres, now known as the

Chinati Foundation The Chinati Foundation/La Fundación Chinati is a contemporary art museum located in Marfa, Texas, and based upon the ideas of its founder, artist Donald Judd. Mission The specific intention of Chinati is to preserve and present to the public perm ...

, was conceived by

who was given $17,500 a month as a salary and installation payment for the museum. In the first ten years, Dia was spending up to $5 million a year on less than twelve artists, funding art commissions and living expenses for individual artists between $2,500 and $17,500 a month. The foundation spent over $30 million in less than 10 years amassing over 900 works and a small real estate empire. By 1981 Dia owned about $14 million dollars worth of artwork and $15 million in real estate. Over 1980 and 1981 it spent about $19 million supporting artists and their work. These first years of Dia are marked with management issues, including paying taxes on properties that could be tax exempt and other extravagant spending. Philippa de Menil summed up how fast Dia did so much with "The reason we accomplished so much in terms of projects is that we just forged ahead and didn't worry about overspending."

Financial issues and restructuring

Between 1980 and 1982, the

oil stock cratered, going from about $87 a share to about $30. This drastic cut to de Menil's fortune forced Dia to begin tightening the purse strings with its artists. Artists were sent details about how to spin their projects off into independent foundations. In 1983, Donald Judd was informed that his brainchild in Marfa was being delayed, and he was advised to turn it into an independent foundation. Things got so bad financially for Dia in 1983 they were forced to take out a $3.87 million loan from

Citibank Citibank, N. A. (N. A. stands for " National Association") is the primary U.S. banking subsidiary of financial services multinational Citigroup. Citibank was founded in 1812 as the City Bank of New York, and later became First National City ...

using de Menil's Schlumberger stock as collateral. This prompted The New York state attorney general to begin an investigation into the foundation's practices and Judd threatened to sue Dia for breach of contract 1985 saw a shake up in Dia's board due to the financial issues and Judd's threatened lawsuit. Heiner Friedrich left the board and Philippa de Menil's financial support ended and her money was placed into a trust, although she remaid a board member.Glueck, Grace
Dia Foundation, Back From Brink, Opens New Center
''The New York Times''. October 7, 1987. Retrieved August 28, 2009. Philippa de Menil's mother,

, stepped in, and installed Ashton Hawkins, an executive vice president at the

Metropolitan Museum The Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York City, colloquially "the Met", is the largest art museum in the Americas. Its permanent collection contains over two million works, divided among 17 curatorial departments. The main building at 1000 ...

, as Dia's chairman. Along with Hawkins, the new board members included Lois de Menil,

John C. Evans John C. "Fuzzy" Evans (February 13, 1908 – July 22, 1983) was an American football and basketball player and coach. He served as the head basketball coach at the University of Vermont from 1940 to 1965. His 23 years at the helm of the Vermont ...

, future United States Supreme Court justice

Stephen Breyer Stephen Gerald Breyer ( ; born August 15, 1938) is a retired American lawyer and jurist who served as an associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court from 1994 until his retirement in 2022. He was nominated by President Bill Clinton, and repl ...

, Margaret Douglas-Hamilton, and

Herbert Brownell Herbert Brownell Jr. (February 20, 1904 – May 1, 1996) was an American lawyer and Republican politician. From 1953 to 1957, he served as United States Attorney General in the administration of President Dwight D. Eisenhower. Early life Browne ...

. Lois de Menil summed up the financial distress Dia was in with "We were absolutely appalled at the state of acute financial distress...There was a $5-million Citibank debt to pay, projected costs of $5-million, no operating budget, and no visible income." The night before the new board was set to meet, Sheikh

al-Jerrahi of the

lodge Dia funded, passed away in

Istanbul Istanbul ( , ; tr, İstanbul ), formerly known as Constantinople ( grc-gre, Κωνσταντινούπολις; la, Constantinopolis), is the List of largest cities and towns in Turkey, largest city in Turkey, serving as the country's economic, ...

Turkey Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a list of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolia, Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with ...

. Philippa de Menil (now Fariha Fatima al-Jerrahi) ominously reflected on the passing of her spiritual guide saying, "His death seemed to herald many new changes." The new board began slashing at Dia contracts and real estate to get the budget under control with projects being dropped and dismantled at a fast rate. The mosque was removed from 155 Mercer Street to 245 West Broadway. La Monte Young and Marian Zazeela had to leave the Harrison Street building, which was then sold for $5.5 million. Artists were outraged and threatened to sue. La Monte Young said, "The new board treated us like criminals, like terrorists... they took ten years of our lives away." and Dan Flavin remarked about the de Menil's that, "It doesn't matter who gets hurt in order to hold up the family reputation." An auction of works from Dia's holdings was held in 1985 at Sotheby's including pieces by

Cy Twombly Edwin Parker "Cy" Twombly Jr. (; April 25, 1928July 5, 2011) was an American Painting, painter, Sculpture, sculptor and photographer. He belonged to the generation of Robert Rauschenberg and Jasper Johns. Twombly is said to have influenced you ...

, and

and raised approximately $1.3 million causing an outcry from those artists still connected to Dia. The foundation restructured and refocused on a new purpose as an institution. A fundraising campaign began to start an endowment that would fund a drastically reduced operating budget, approximately $800,000 a year. Dia began showing works from its collection in public for the first time, starting with a show of Cy Twombly paintings. The financial difficulties during the 1980s reduced Dia's annual expenditures from $5 million in 1984 to 1.2 million in 1987. By the end of 1987, real-estate and art sales had brought in about $17 million to pay the debt and start an endowment. The foundation was renamed the Dia Center for the Arts and a programme of poetry readings, performances, lectures and publications was begun.

Collecting new works and renovating spaces

In 2015 Jessica Morgan joined Dia as the new director.Goldstein, Andrew
Is It Time for a Land Art Renaissance? Jessica Morgan on Her Ambitious Vision for Dia in New York and Far, Far Beyond

Artnet Artnet.com is an art market website. It is operated by Artnet Worldwide Corporation, which has headquarters in New York City, in the United States, and is owned by Artnet AG, a German publicly traded company based in Berlin that is listed on t ...

. May 17, 2019. Retrieved August 22, 2020. While Dia holds works by under 50 artists, Morgan focused new collecting on works by women and international artists to diversify the largely white and male collection. This push culminated in the acquisition of ''Sun Tunnels'' by

Nancy Holt Nancy Holt (April 5, 1938 – February 8, 2014) was an American artist most known for her public sculpture, installation art, concrete poetry, and land art. Throughout her career, Holt also produced works in other media, including film and photog ...

. Morgan also ended the drive to build a new building in Chelsea and instead focused on joining three buildings the Foundation already owns and using raised funds to support the endowment. A $78 million capital campaign was announced in June 2018 and the target was raised to $90 million in May 2019. When asked about this sudden change from building a new building to a much smaller scope of construction in an interview in

Morgan explained, "We're very different from the Guggenheim or

MoMA Moma may refer to: People * Moma Clarke (1869–1958), British journalist * Moma Marković (1912–1992), Serbian politician * Momčilo Rajin (born 1954), Serbian art and music critic, theorist and historian, artist and publisher Places ; Ang ...

, where we think of specific buildings as being the landmark institutions. Dia has always followed a different route, which was finding spaces where the artists could share their vision with us." The New Dia Chelsea is scheduled to reopen in the fall of 2020 followed by updates, renovations, and expansions at other spaces under the Dia purview. A new gallery will open in

SoHo Soho is an area of the City of Westminster, part of the West End of London. Originally a fashionable district for the aristocracy, it has been one of the main entertainment districts in the capital since the 19th century. The area was develop ...

in a retail space Dia has rented out for 10 years, of gallery space at Dia Beacon will be opened, and the climate control systems for ''The New York Earth Room'' and ''The Broken Kilometer'' will be overhauled so the works can remain open all year. These physical updates to buildings Dia owns are planned to use less than 25% of the funds raised from the capital campaign.

Locations and sites

Dia Beacon, Riggio Galleries

Dia Beacon, Riggio Galleries in

Beacon, New York Beacon is a city located in Dutchess County, New York, United States. The 2020 census placed the city total population at 13,769. Beacon is part of the Poughkeepsie– Newburgh– Middletown, New York Metropolitan Statistical Area as we ...

, is located in a former printing plant built in 1929 by

Nabisco Nabisco (, abbreviated from the earlier name National Biscuit Company) is an American manufacturer of cookies and snacks headquartered in East Hanover, New Jersey. The company is a subsidiary of Illinois-based Mondelēz International. Nabisco's ...

. When it opened in 2003 with of exhibition space, it became one of the

largest Large means of great size. Large may also refer to: Mathematics * Arbitrarily large, a phrase in mathematics * Large cardinal, a property of certain transfinite numbers * Large category, a category with a proper class of objects and morphisms (or ...

museums to open in the United States since the

Museum of Modern Art The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues. It plays a major role in developing and collecting modern art, and is often identified as one of ...

opened in the late 1930s. Each gallery was designed specifically for the art it contains. The space is limited to the works of 25 artists, including: *

's 1978–79 multipart work ''Shadows'', which wraps around the walls of a single big room; *selections from

's series of fluorescent light ''monuments to V. Tatlin'' (1964–81), displayed in a room the size of a football field; *

Richard Serra Richard Serra (born November 2, 1938) is an American artist known for his large-scale sculptures made for site-specific landscape, urban, and architectural settings. Serra's sculptures are notable for their material quality and exploration o ...

's monumental steel sculptures ''Torqued Ellipses''; and *

Michael Heizer Michael Heizer (born 1944) is an American land artist specializing in large-scale and site-specific sculptures. Working largely outside the confines of the traditional art spaces of galleries and museums, Heizer has redefined sculpture in terms ...

's ''North, East, South, West'' (1967/2002). The museum's galleries of paintings by

On Kawara was a Japanese conceptual artist who lived in New York City from 1965. He took part in many solo and group exhibitions, including the Venice Biennale in 1976. Early life Kawara was born in Kariya, Japan on December 24, 1932. After graduating fro ...

Blinky Palermo Blinky Palermo (2 June 1943 – 18 February 1977) was a German abstract painter. Early life and education Palermo was born Peter Schwarze in Leipzig, Germany, in 1943, and adopted as an infant, with his twin brother, Michael, by foster pa ...

, and

Robert Ryman Robert Ryman (May 30, 1930February 8, 2019) was an American painter identified with the movements of monochrome painting, minimalism, and conceptual art. He was best known for abstract, white-on-white paintings. He lived and worked in New York C ...

receive reflected north light from more than of skylights. Dia collaborated with Robert Irwin and architect OpenOffice to formulate the plan for the museum building and its exterior setting. The grounds include an entrance court, and parking lot with a grove of flowering fruit trees and a formal garden, both of which were designed by Irwin. According to ''

'', it cost $50 million to build, with Leonard Riggio contributing at least $35 million of that amount; the remainder of the construction funds came from the

Lannan Foundation The Lannan Literary Awards are a series of awards and literary fellowships given out in various fields by the Lannan Foundation. Established in 1989, the awards are meant "to honor both established and emerging writers whose work is of exceptional ...

($10 million), Ann Tenenbaum and her husband Thomas H. Lee ($2.5 million), among others. As of 2007 its annual operating costs are about $3 million a year.

Dia Bridgehampton

Dia Bridgehampton, previously known as the Dan Flavin Art Institute, is a museum in

Bridgehampton Bridgehampton is a Hamlet (New York), hamlet and census-designated place (CDP) on the South Fork, Suffolk County, New York, South Fork of Suffolk County, New York, Suffolk County, New York (state), New York, United States. The population was 1,7 ...

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

opened in 1983 to house nine fluorescent light works by

on permanent display. Besides the permanent exhibit, there is also a gallery for temporary exhibitions and a display on the history of the building.Dia Bridgehampton
Dia Art Foundation. Retrieved July 19, 2020.

Dia Chelsea

In October 1987, when Dia Chelsea opened its main space, it attracted about 16,000 to 17,000 visitors a year. Before it closed for renovations in February 2004, attendance had grown to about 60,000. The extent of the repairs needed prompted the foundation to sell the building for $38.55 million in December 2007. Dia began as an institution dedicated to supporting long-term projects by living artists, and for several years, it was trying to raise money to build a space for such endeavors in Manhattan, after outgrowing its two locations on West 22nd Street in Chelsea and closing them in 2004. The foundation's board abandoned plans on opening a museum at the entrance to the

High Line The High Line is a elevated park, elevated linear park, greenway (landscape), greenway and rail trail created on a former New York Central Railroad spur on the West Side (Manhattan), west side of Manhattan in New York City. The High Line's ...

in 2006 after losing its longtime director,

Michael Govan Michael Govan (born 1963) is the director of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Prior to his current position, Govan worked as the director of the Dia Art Foundation in New York City. Early life and education Govan was born in 1963 in Nor ...

, and its chairman and benefactor, Leonard Riggio. In November 2009 Dia's Director,

Philippe Vergne Philippe Vergne (born 1966) is a French curator and director of the Serralves Museum, Serralves Contemporary Art Museum. Until March 2019, he was director of the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (MOCA). He was the director of the Dia Art Foun ...

, announced plans to reopen in Chelsea on West 22nd Street. In 2011, after years of negotiations, Dia bought the former Alcamo Marble building at 541 West 22nd Street, located between its former space at No. 545 and its existing six-story building at No. 535, for $11.5 million. Inside, these three existing brick buildings will be woven together to create three interconnected galleries on the ground floor. According to plans, the new Dia, designed by architect

Roger Duffy Roger Duffy is an American architect, known for rigorous and unconventional approach to design. Now retired, he worked as a partner at the firm Skidmore, Owings & Merrill. He was a design partner in the New York office from 1995 until 2018, and ...

, will include of gallery space and of rooftop for outdoor exhibitions like

Dan Graham Daniel Graham (March 31, 1942 – February 19, 2022) was an American visual artist, writer, and curator in the writer-artist tradition. In addition to his visual works, he published a large array of critical and speculative writing that spanned ...

's ''Rooftop Urban Park Project'' (1991), an architectural pavilion fashioned from two-way mirrored glass that was originally installed on the roof of No. 548. In 2015, incoming Dia Director Jessica Morgan reactivated three properties already owned by Dia in Chelsea at 535, 541 and 545 West 22nd Street, including re-launching the space at 545 West 22nd Street with an exhibition of

and

. From September 2016,

Hauser & Wirth Hauser & Wirth is a Swiss contemporary and modern art gallery. History Hauser & Wirth was founded in 1992 in Zurich by Iwan Wirth, Manuela Wirth, and Ursula Hauser, who were joined in 2000 by co-president Marc Payot. In 2020, Ewan Venters was ap ...

took over the old four-story space at 548 West 22nd Street as a temporary home while constructing its new building at no. 542. To adapt the space, the gallery enlisted

Annabelle Selldorf Annabelle Selldorf (born 1960) is a German-born architect and founding principal of Selldorf Architects, a New York City-based architecture practice. She is a fellow of the American Institute of Architects (FAIA) and the recipient of the 2016 AIA ...

. In 2018, Dia announced a multi-year plan to revitalize its programmatic sites, including the renovation of Dia's current spaces at West 22nd Street to create a unified, facility, including of integrated, street-level exhibition and programming space across their three contiguous buildings. The new, renovated Dia Chelsea will open in Fall 2020 and will present exhibitions, public programs and lectures, and will return Dia's bookstore to Chelsea.

Permanent collection

Over Dia's first ten years, its founders assembled a collection of a select group of artists. Among those whose work was commissioned and collected at that time are

, John Chamberlain,

Imi Knoebel Imi Knoebel (/i:mi: kno:ʊbəl/) (born Klaus Wolf Knoebel; 1940) is a German artist. Knoebel is known for his minimalist, abstract painting and sculpture. The "Messerschnitt" or "knife cuts," are a recurring technique he employs, along with his ...

, and

. In 1979 the Dia Art Foundation acquired ''Shadows'' (1978–79), the monumental painting installation by

consisting of 102 canvases, as a single entity from the artist during its inaugural exhibition at the Heiner Friedrich Gallery in New York. In 1991 Dia gave the

Menil Collection The Menil Collection, located in Houston, Texas, refers either to a museum that houses the art collection of founders John de Menil and Dominique de Menil, or to the collection itself of approximately 17,000 paintings, sculptures, prints, drawing ...

in Houston six of its best works by Twombly in anticipation of the Twombly Gallery that opened there in 1995.Carol Vogel (June 27, 2013)
Dia Foundation to Sell Works to Start Acquisition Fund
''The New York Times''. In anticipation of the opening of

, Dia augmented its core collection with focused acquisitions. The first of these was made in 1997, when Board Chairman Leonard Riggio and his family gave the Foundation three sculptures from

's ''Torqued Ellipses'' series (1996–97), sculptures created for an exhibition at Dia Chelsea; it was the first acquisition for Dia's permanent collection in over ten years, a $2 million purchase made by Riggio. With support from the

, the artists themselves, and others, the collection has expanded with gifts, purchases, and long-term loans of works by other artists from that same generation—

Bernd and Hilla Becher Bernhard "Bernd" Becher (; 20 August 1931 – 22 June 2007), and Hilla Becher, née Wobeser (2 September 1934 – 10 October 2015), were German conceptual artists and photographers working as a collaborative duo. They are best known for their ...

Louise Bourgeois Louise Joséphine Bourgeois (; 25 December 191131 May 2010) was a French-American artist. Although she is best known for her large-scale sculpture and installation art, Bourgeois was also a prolific painter and printmaker. She explored a varie ...

Hanne Darboven Hanne Darboven (29 April 1941 – 9 March 2009) was a German conceptual artist, best known for her large-scale minimalist installations consisting of handwritten tables of numbers. Early life and career Darboven was born in 1941 in Munich. She gr ...

, Robert Irwin,

Sol LeWitt Solomon "Sol" LeWitt (September 9, 1928 – April 8, 2007) was an American artist linked to various movements, including conceptual art and minimalism. LeWitt came to fame in the late 1960s with his wall drawings and "structures" (a term he pref ...

Bruce Nauman Bruce Nauman (born December 6, 1941) is an American artist. His practice spans a broad range of media including sculpture, photography, neon, video, drawing, printmaking, and performance. Nauman lives near Galisteo, New Mexico. Life and work ...

Gerhard Richter Gerhard Richter (; born 9 February 1932) is a German visual artist. Richter has produced abstract as well as photorealistic paintings, and also photographs and glass pieces. He is widely regarded as one of the most important contemporary German ...

Robert Smithson Robert Smithson (January 2, 1938 – July 20, 1973) was an American artist known for sculpture and land art who often used drawing and photography in relation to the spatial arts. His work has been internationally exhibited in galleries and m ...

, and

Lawrence Weiner Lawrence Charles Weiner (February 10, 1942December 2, 2021) was an American conceptual artist. He was one of the central figures in the formation of conceptual art in the 1960s. His work often took the form of typographic texts, a form of word a ...

—as well as additional works by artists already represented. In recent years, Dia has focused on broadening its collection to spotlight a more diverse and international mix of artists. Female artists who have been added to the permanent collection include

Mary Corse Mary Corse (born 1945) is an American artist who lives and works in Topanga, California. Fascinated with perceptual phenomena and the idea that light itself can serve as both subject and material in art, Corse's practice can be seen as existing at ...

Dorothea Rockburne Dorothea Rockburne DFA (born c. 1932) is an abstract painter, drawing inspiration primarily from her deep interest in mathematics and astronomy. Her work is geometric and abstract, seemingly simple but very precise to reflect the mathematical con ...

, Michelle Stuart and

Anne Truitt Anne Truitt (March 16, 1921December 23, 2004), born Anne Dean, was an American sculptor of the mid-20th century. She became well known in the late 1960s for her large-scale minimalist sculptures, especially after influential solo shows at André ...

. In 2017, Dia acquired work by

Kishio Suga (born 1944), is a Japanese sculptor and installation artist currently living in Itō, Shizuoka, Japan. He is one of the key members of Mono-ha, a group of artists who became prominent in the late 1960s and 1970s. The Mono-ha artists explored ...

and

Lee Ufan Lee Ufan (Korean: 이우환, Hanja: 李禹煥, born 1936 in Haman County, in South Kyongsang province in Korea) is a Korean minimalist painter and sculptor artist and academic, honored by the government of Japan for having "contributed to the ...

, bringing seminal work from the 1960s Mono-ha movement in Japan into the collection to promote greater understanding of work being made internationally during this period. In 2017,

, a key Dia artist, donated 21 of his works to the institution, making Dia's Ryman holdings unparalleled in any other public collection.

Deaccessioning

In 1985, Dia Art Foundation for the first time auctioned off 18 works at

Sotheby's Sotheby's () is a British-founded American multinational corporation with headquarters in New York City. It is one of the world's largest brokers of fine and decorative art, jewellery, and collectibles. It has 80 locations in 40 countries, and ...

, including pieces by

and

Barnett Newman Barnett Newman (January 29, 1905 – July 4, 1970) was an American artist. He has been critically regarded as one of the major figures of abstract expressionism, and one of the foremost color field painters. His paintings explore the sense o ...

, for $1.3 million.Randy Kennedy (November 12, 2013)
Dia's Auction of Artworks Is to Proceed
''The New York Times''. In 2013, the foundation announced its plan to sell another group of paintings and sculptures — including pieces by Twombly, Chamberlain and

— at Sotheby's, this time hoping to raise at least $20 million for an acquisition budget and to pay for 30 works that have been on long-term loan to Dia from the Lannan Foundation. In response, founders Heiner Friedrich and Fariha de Menil filed suit in

New York Supreme Court The Supreme Court of the State of New York is the trial-level court of general jurisdiction in the New York State Unified Court System. (Its Appellate Division is also the highest intermediate appellate court.) It is vested with unlimited civ ...

, seeking an

injunction An injunction is a legal and equitable remedy in the form of a special court order that compels a party to do or refrain from specific acts. ("The court of appeals ... has exclusive jurisdiction to enjoin, set aside, suspend (in whole or in pa ...

against the foundation and Sotheby's while raising the possibility that some of the works might not be legally owned by Dia but constitute long-term loans from the Friedrichs. However, the lawsuit was dropped shortly after, and the consigned works raised $38.4 million.

Long-term and affiliated projects

Michael Govan, the former director of Dia under whose direction Dia Beacon was constructed, estimates that before Philippa de Menil's family forced her to sharply cut back on funding—an act precipitated by the

1980s oil glut The 1980s oil glut was a serious surplus of crude oil caused by falling demand following the 1970s energy crisis. The world price of oil had peaked in 1980 at over US$35 per barrel (equivalent to $ per barrel in dollars, when adjusted for inf ...

's effect on the Schlumberger fortune—Dia spent "at least $40 million" on a series of installations that Dia continues to maintain. Among those 1970s and early 1980s projects are works by

, including ''

The Lightning Field ''The Lightning Field'' (1977) is a land art work in Catron County, New Mexico, by sculptor Walter De Maria. It consists of 400 stainless steel poles with solid, pointed tips, arranged in a rectangular 1 mile × 1 kilometre grid array. It is mai ...

'' (1977), near

Quemado, New Mexico Quemado is a census-designated place in Catron County, New Mexico, United States. As of the 2010 census it had a population of 228. Walter De Maria's 1977 art installation, '' The Lightning Field'', is between Quemado and Pie Town, New Mexico. ...

; and ''The New York Earth Room'' (1977) and ''The Broken Kilometer'' (1979), in

. In addition, Dia maintains the Dan Flavin Art Institute, a former church in

Bridgehampton, New York Bridgehampton is a hamlet and census-designated place (CDP) on the South Fork of Suffolk County, New York, United States. The population was 1,756 at the 2010 census. Bridgehampton is in the town of Southampton, on Long Island. Shortly after ...

converted in the 1980s into an installation of works by Flavin. The installation of work by

and John Chamberlain, in

, was begun by Judd; Dia gave the project $4 million between 1980 and 1986, before cutting off the financial support due to Dia's financial crisis; a lawsuit threatened by Judd led to the establishment of the

with support from Dia. ''

Funding

The Dia Art Foundation is a tax-exempt

charitable organization A charitable organization or charity is an organization whose primary objectives are philanthropy and social well-being (e.g. educational, Religion, religious or other activities serving the public interest or common good). The legal definitio ...

. Current programs are supported in part by funds from the members of the Board of Trustees, foundations (such as the Lannan Foundation and the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts), and other friends of the institution. As of 2013, Dia' endowment stands at around $55 million.Ted Loos (October 18, 2013)
Sotheby's Magazine: Dia Goes Back To The Future

Board of Trustees

Among others, the Dia Art Foundation's board includes collectors Frances Bowes and Howard Rachofsky. Under new director Jessica Morgan's leadership, the Greek shipping magnate George Economou, investor and philanthropist Jeffrey Perelman, and Ra Hee Hong Lee, Irene Panagopoulos,

Jane Skinner Jane Skinner (born February 12, 1967) is an American former daytime news anchor who worked for Fox News, co-hosting ''Happening Now'' with Jon Scott from 11 am to 1 pm ET. On June 24, 2010, she announced on-air her retirement from her daytime news ...

and

James Murdoch James Rupert Jacob Murdoch (born 13 December 1972) is a British-American businessman, the younger son of media mogul Rupert Murdoch, and was the chief executive officer (CEO) of 21st Century Fox from 2015 to 2019. He was the chairman and CEO fo ...

joined.Randy Kennedy (March 1, 2016)
Dia Art Foundation Adds Two Board Members
''The New York Times''. Artist trustees have included

Brice Marden Brice Marden (born October 15, 1938) is an American artist generally described as Minimalist, although his work may be hard to categorize. He lives and works in New York City; Tivoli, New York; Hydra, Greece; and Eagles Mere, Pennsylvania. Life ...

, and

George Condo George Condo (born 1957) is an American visual artist who works in painting, drawing, sculpture and printmaking. He lives and works in New York City. Early life Condo was born in Concord, New Hampshire. He studied art history and musi ...

References

External links

Dia Art Foundation

The Dan Flavin Art Institute
{{Authority control Arts foundations based in the United States Installation art American contemporary art Chelsea, Manhattan Beacon, New York Arts organizations established in 1974