The Beanery...

Entering The Beanery is like walking into a time capsule. It is a life-size, walk-in artwork created in 1965 by American artist Edward Kienholz representing the interior of Barney’s Beanery, a bar in West Hollywood frequented by artists.

Modelled at two-thirds the size of the original, it features the smells and sounds of the bar. All the customers have clocks for faces with the time set at 10:10; only Barney, the owner, has a real face. The artist said, “The entire work symbolizes the switch from real time (symbolized by a newspaper) to the surrealist time inside the bar, where people waste time, kill time, forget time and ignore time.”

Many of the elements included are very realistic including many authentic items from the bar, offering critical commentary of society at that time.

This installation was first exhibited in the parking lot of the bar in 1965 and has been housed in the Stedelijk since 1970.