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Clip & save. Donald Judd This article or section may contain original research or unverified claims.Please help Wikipedia by adding references. See the for details.This article has been tagged since October 2007. (1928-1994). Untitled, 1969. Brass and coloredfluorescent plexiglass on steel brackets; 10 pieces, 6 1/8" x24" x 27" each, with 6 inches in between; overall: 1161/2" x 24" x 27". Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden,Washington, D.C. Part of the Smithsonian Institution, the museum was designed by Gordon Bunshaft to house 6,000 pieces of the enormous art collection amassed by the industrialist Joseph H. ,Smithsonian Institution Smithsonian Institution,research and education center, at Washington, D.C.; founded 1846 under terms of the will of James Smithson of London, who in 1829 bequeathed his fortune to the United States to create an establishment for the "increase and diffusion of . Gift of Joseph H. Hirshhorn 1972. the artist Donald Judd (1928-1994) grew up in New Jersey, not far from NewYork City New York City:see New York, city. New York CityCity (pop., 2000: 8,008,278), southeastern New York, at the mouth of the Hudson River. The largest city in the U.S. . He enjoyed art as a boy but didn't think of a career inart until after serving in the military. Beginning in 1947, he went toart school in New York New York, state, United StatesNew York,Middle Atlantic state of the United States. It is bordered by Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the Atlantic Ocean (E), New Jersey and Pennsylvania (S), Lakes Erie and Ontario and the Canadian province of and also studied philosophy while attendingcollege. He followed these studies with graduate work in art history. On graduating, he taught art in an elementary school elementary school:see school. and also beganwriting articles for Arts magazine. In particular, his articles forcedhim to think carefully about the new art that was being produced and tounderstand it better. Later, he decided to become a full-time artistbecause, only by making art, could he tell people exactly how hebelieved it should look. As an art student, Judd painted in a realistic style, but he cameto distrust any art that used illusions of realism and distance, as wellas emotion. For him, truth in art could only occur in abstraction--inobjects that could be seen as the shapes they were. To achieve hisgoals, he created extremely high reliefs made first of all from paintedwood. He even rejected the word "sculpture" and refused togive titles to his creations: Instead, he called them"objects." Like a few artists before him, Judd designed an artwork and thenhad it constructed by a manufacturing company. Because it was difficultto get a perfectly finished surface on wood, he eventually had his worksconstructed from such materials as steel, brass and copper, as well asplexiglass. Some of his more massive works are made of concrete. Exceptfor outdoor pieces, his objects were painted in shimmering shim��mer?intr.v. shim��mered, shim��mer��ing, shim��mers1. To shine with a subdued flickering light. See Synonyms at flash.2. bright colorslike those used on motorcycles and showy show��y?adj. show��i��er, show��i��est1. Making an imposing or aesthetically pleasing display; striking: showy flowers.2. cars. In 1979, after having established himself as an artist in New YorkCity, Judd decided that he wanted his children to grow up in thecountryside. So he moved to the small, west-Texas town of Marfa. Hebought some abandoned military buildings, put a high wall around theproperty, and slowly proceeded to make it into a combination home,studio and permanent display for his and the work of other Minimalistartists. He continued to live and work in Marfa until his death in 1994. As a result of his earlier studies in philosophy and art history,Judd was constantly writing about his artistic goals. Throughout hislife, he pursued these goals of unity in art through the uses ofmaterials, space and light, including the shifting planes created byperspective. Later in his career, he also designed furniture that looksquite similar to his sculpture. this artwork Most of Donald Judd's large output of sculpture consists ofbox shapes. Some stand singly, while others consist of several boxeslined up on the floor of a large building or on fields outdoors. Someare massive and give the impression of great strength, whileothers--like this one--are more delicate and seem to float in space. The idea underlying the work reproduced here was repeated numbersof times throughout Judd's long career with different numbers andsizes of boxes and with different materials such as aluminum andgalvanized iron. The size and number of box-like forms in each work,however, result in each sculpture having a unique character. This work was created fairly early in his career and consists of 10boxes aligned vertically on a wall. Each box is exactly the same and ismade of polished brass and red fluorescent plexiglass. The shining brasspicks up shadows and reflections from all around it, which differ oneach box, depending on the amount of light available--as students maysee if they study the work carefully. The red plexiglass tops andbottoms create a glow that seems to come from within each box as well asfrom the wall. The result is that, while all the boxes belong togetherin a single composition, the position of the viewer, the character ofthe materials and the quality of the lighting can alter the visualeffect of the work in an infinite number infinite numbera number so large as to be uncountable. Represented by 8, frequently obtained by 'dividing' by zero. of ways. A problem with this photograph is that the camera is allowing theviewer only one viewpoint from which to study the artwork, when in reallife a much wider range of opportunities is present. For example,students have to imagine how the work might look when viewed from higherup or lower down--or even from above. Students also may imagine how itwould look from different angles from the three-quarter view seen herethat includes two sides of each box, but with more of one side visiblethan the other. In fact, the number of opportunities for viewing this work isalmost infinite, except for that side where the boxes are attached tothe wall. In fact, just about the only way students could trulyexperience the viewing opportunities of this kind of artwork is for themto make one of their own and look at it from a variety of positions. At no time in this work, and in other works by Judd, does a viewerhave to be concerned about whether the work looks like anything. Eachpiece intentionally looks like what it is--and nothing more! Thisextreme "objectness" is exactly what Minimal artists weretrying to accomplish, following a period when attention had been givenmainly to artwork, that either attempted to convey violent emotions orthat copied objects realistically. It may help students to know that Judd once said "My thoughtcomes from painting even if I don't paint." He went on to saythat he saw no difference between painting and sculpture except one ofdimension. In other words Adv. 1. in other words - otherwise stated; "in other words, we are broke"put differently , similar ideas to those expressed by DonaldJudd could as easily be explored on paper in a school classroom.--G.H.