The Big news today is that the Dia is returning to Chelsea, the NYT's Carol Vogel has the story. Looks like the Dia is trying to recapture it's legendary role as institutional patron of difficult, inconvenient art. I.E. the best kind of art. In the past year I've visited Dia Beacon, Spiral Jetty, the Earth Room, and the Lightning Field etc. None of these would have been possible without the Dia but when they left Chelsea they abandoned experimentation in New York City... which was unacceptable.

I love the fact that new director Philippe Vergne is going to focus on programming, not museum style bling. At that we have to ask, "how great will that programming be?" It's a tall order. Dia's legacy would make anybody except maybe Walter Hopps a little shy about comparisons with the past. Can they actually back truly great artists like they did in the past or is it going to be another checklist of international art stars weve already seen and mostly found wanting when compared to Serra's Torqued Ellipses and Walter De Maria's Lightning Field? It's a huge gamble but like days of yore they need to back a few wildly original artists who have been too inconvenient for proper attention during the mostly market driven decade.

Note Vogel's article also mentions that a long awaited Donald Judd catalogue raisonné is officially under way... the previous catalog stops in 1974. Just before Judd's very interesting show at Portland's PCVA. Overall, Judd scholarship has languished since the artists death and like everyone who has used the rather incomplete an imperfect existing one ... this is a necessary wish come true.

Over at the Mercury Matt Stangel reviews Ben Young's latest... quiet dia-esque

Tyler Green points to William Powhida's hilarious takedown of the New Museum. This is exactly what the Dia needs to avoid.