The Whitney Museum Class Trip: Dennis J. Quinn

The Whitney Museum Class Trip: Dennis J. Quinn

I enjoyed Dan Graham’s main movie room about musicians and how rock and role was changing American culture. The video was a bit long for an installation. It was not only informative, but it seemed like you could walk in at any point of the video and be right where the Dan wanted you to be. Of course the movie is looped, but the idea that you can walk in, leave and come back and still have a sense of understanding and be captivated by the editing and the visuals was interesting, but more along the lines of entertainment in my mind. This is not to say that art cannot be entertainment but I tend to be attracted to the more conventional way of museums.
Georgia O’keeffes’ abstract watercolor pictures were beautiful and abundant. Sometimes I felt that she over used her motifs. But her sense of composition and form is nothing less than graceful. I do not recall every piece of work, but my overall impression was that I felt impressed but not completely moved.
Sometimes I expect too much when I walk into a museum where contemporary art is being displayed. I usually want my socks to be blown off or moved in a way the leaves me feeling inspired or that I must return (kind of like MOMA). I left feeling tired but inspired to make some ideas that stepped outside of the box similarly to Dan Graham’s reflection pieces.