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DONALD JUDD
by Phong Bui
Mound, Clique, Flow
From ancient and sacred geometry arose Gertrude’s “Portraits and Repetition.”
Deliberate in each matter of fragmented melody,
Can form reach its opulence through endurance and reiteration?
The interval of Untitled, 1991,
However brilliant and succulent the red sheen of the almost uniformly
Weathered steel may appear,
In its accord with the painted yellow lacquer,
In each of the four square configurations,
It holds the negative space like a silent crucifix.
In near distance, one member of the family
Denies, conceals, dividing the square to the divine multiplicity.
Where does one negotiate with one’s torso in this perfect symmetry?
“Specific Objects” objectifies the silence of counting.
Counting to formulate variations of vertical and horizontal repose.
It’s sublime in one-quarter left on one side.
Perplex beauty of the same yellow lacquer on the other side.
They keep us from entering this generous maze.
Yes, it’s measured to the middle of her ribcage,
Equating someone else’s feet standing and moving about.
They’re in complete harmony with their spatial flow, clique, and mound.
Donald Judd, Untitled, 1991. Cor-ten steel and yellow paint. Four units, each: 39 3/8 × 39 3/8 × 19 11/16 inches. Art © Judd Foundation. Licensed by VAGA, New York, NY; courtesy David Zwirner, New York/London.
Installation view, Donald Judd, David Zwirner, New York, 2015. Art © Judd Foundation. Licensed by VAGA, New York, NY. Courtesy David Zwirner, New York/London.
RECOMMENDED ARTICLES
ON DONALD JUDD’S WRITINGS
Mirror and Bridge
by Greg Lindquist
DEC 16-JAN 17 | Art Books
Donald Judd Writings (Judd Foundation/David Zwirner Books, 2016) at once resembles a brick and a bible. With compact, cuboid dimensions and containing over a thousand thin, silky pages, this exhaustive collection is itself a cheekily “specific object.” Judd’s son Flavin shared in its design and suggests in an introduction that we view his father’s writing as a “tool for future use.”
Distance Learning
by Ethan GreenbaumDEC 16-JAN 17 | Art Books
I first encountered Donald Judd’s writings in graduate school. I was attending Robert Hobbs’ “Formalism Revisited,” and our reading list covered some of Judd’s texts, including “Specific Objects.”
Roberta Smith with Jarrett Earnest
MAR 2017 | Art
Roberta Smith is co-chief art critic at the New York Times. She joined the newspaper’s staff in 1991 after writing for Artforum, Art in America, and the Village Voice. Smith spoke with Jarrett Earnest about Donald Judd, opinionated criticism, and dealing with your own ideas.
[Untitled]
by Marjorie WelishDEC 16-JAN 17 | Art Books
Now as then, Donald Judd’s writing on art makes us mindful of the studio writ large. Verbalized or not, our art resides in the many decisions informing the manufacture of artifacts of some kind, for which tectonics and facture must speak to some clear purpose.
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