Home > Marfa Lite
the work
So let’s take a look at some Donald Judd
Permalink | Comments (0) | Post your comment |
a month or so
Whew…finally got a chance to take a break! Lots of ground to make up for the last month…for those that don’t know Donald Judd from John Doe, I’ll give you a little background on his work and the ‘Judd Effect’ here in Marfa.
Judd first came through west Texas in the early 50s when he stopped in Van Horn on the way to deployment in Korea, but wouldn’t return to the area until 1971. After the war, he studied philosophy at Columbia, and then began writing critiques for Arts Magazine in the early 1960s. As an art critic, Judd did not make many friends, but the work paid the rent. As his work gained popularity in Europe, he purchased his studio building in SoHo - 101 Spring Street - in 1968. This was the first of his many building renovations dedicated to the permanent installation of work that forms the core of his vision for experiencing art. Around this time, Judd began to look for larger spaces for his work, spending summers in Baja California and other parts of the southwest. In 1971 and ‘72 he returned to west Texas and began renting property in Marfa.
By 1977 Judd had taken up permanent residence in town and with initial funding from the Dia Foundation (www.diacenter.org) bought the majority of what was formerly Fort D.A. Russell. The 340 acres purchased now make up the Chinati Foundation (www.chinati.org), where twelve artists have permanent installations.
Although Judd initially kept a low profile in Marfa, he began purchasing most of the vacant downtown real estate, so much so that when you drive through town today the bright red ‘JUDD’ brand dots half of the downtown structures. Most locals regard the ‘art people’ that make the pilgrimage to Marfa with a wry amusement, although you will be hard pressed to find anyone that will actually give you a straight answer on the true local sentiment regarding Judd. However, as one rancher in this Salon.com (http://dir.salon.com/story/news/feature/2005/08/01/marfa/) article from several years ago said - “We’re filling up with triple As: artists, assholes, and attorneys” Interestingly enough, the development project mentioned in the article went belly-up and nothing much happened. Chalk that up to tabloid journalism I suppose - things seem pretty peaceful these days.
Permalink | Comments (0) | Post your comment |
Welcome to nowhere
Welcome to Marfa - its about time I started writing something! For everyone that hasn’t heard of Marfa, you are are not alone. Check out google maps to see where in the heck Marfa is located.
Also look at some of the local sites to get a feel for Marfa - I’ll be posting events from the last three weeks to get everybody up to speed on what’s been going on during March.
http://www.marfatx.com/
http://www.marfa.org/
Latest comments