Rineke Dijkstra: A Retrospective @ the Guggenheim

The photo portraits and videos on display by 53 year old Dutch artist Dijkstra is startling, thought provoking and incredibly fun to experience.  Dijkstra best known for her large portraits of young people poised in bathing suits on sandy shores on the cusp of adulthood, is a master at capturing their vulnerabilites and potentials.  Arbus & Sherman accentuate the bizarre, Dijkstra captures the ordinary individual and makes them appear exceptional.  The portraits had me pondering what the individuals  were feeling and what their future's held.  Apparently, Dijkstra is also intrigued by the mystery and metamorphoses imbued by time.  Note the series of photos of Almerisa, from age 6 through adolescence, pregnancy and post birth.  The transformations are banal yet riveting.  Equally hypnotic are the portraits of 4 bloodied toreadors taken just after coming from the ring situated directly across from 3 life sized nude portraits of women who've just given birth clutching their newborns to their chests.  The video in which young students express their reaction to Picasso's Weeping Woman endearingly illuminates what art is intended to induce - an emotional response that engages one in thought and dialogue.  I recommend encountering this exhibit with a companion.