ANSWER: ONE MAN – DONALD JUDD – Marfa Texas is an unlikely art oasis in a small desert town in the desert S/W of Texas. In the 1970s, minimalist artist Donald Judd moved his studio to this dusty town where everything was cheap and where he could afford space. He build several art compounds here for his studios and to display his work. Judd died in 1994 and in the years since, Marfa has emerged as a mecca for art tourism, people drive for hours and hours to see the impact that Judd left behind.
JUDD IN MARFA, understanding what Judd was trying to accomplish unlocks the meaning of him choosing Marfa. He came to Marfa for the space, but also in search of authenticity. He was dissatisfied with the New York Art World, in which he felt taste-makers and curators had become more interested in power, than the art, they showed the world.
By the 1960s, Judd had abandoned painting, having recognized that, “actual space is intrinsically more powerful and specific than paint on a surface;” that is, he believed that a work that shares three-dimensional space with the beholder calls more attention to itself than an image that is hung on the wall. As an artist, Judd was beginning to recognize the importance of the environment to how a work is perceived. Here, he places a simple, rectangular form directly onto the floor of the gallery so that it demands recognition through its insistent materiality as well as through the fact that it impinges upon the viewer’s passage through the space. The work, therefore, exists as an object rather than as something that belongs to the privileged and remote world of art. In this manner, Judd has begun to use a new visual language for three-dimensional form, one that emphasizes the simplicity and physical nature of the piece.
PHOTO ESSAY – MARFA TEXAS
Info plaque on the Hotel Paisano.
“THE END.”
(Source a visit by ARTS and FOOD staff to Marfa, Texas and all of Judd’s properties, plus theartstory.org/artist/judd-donald/)
