Evening Sand 

Mark Beck made this painting of a lifeguard station, perhaps in California, sometime in the late 20th century. It is a very contemporary image that brings up social and institutional questions about who gets access to leisure, who is watching over us and how, and what structures shape our lives. Beck’s treatment of the station as something both monumental and precarious speaks to a tension between state institutions and the individuals that they serve. It’s raised up on spindly legs that seem unlikely to hold its weight. The artist is asking us to look at the power structures in our lives. Is the state really as all-seeing and all-powerful as it likes to suggest? Is it as stable? To really understand what Beck is saying here, you might want to investigate social histories of Californian beach culture, and the role of the state in shaping that culture.