12 Donald Judd Untitled (88-27 Menziken) 1988 anodized aluminum, green Plexiglas, in 6 parts each 19 3/4 x 39 x 19 3/4 in. (50.2 x 99.1 x 50.2 cm.) Each imprinted "DONALD JUDD 88-27 A" through "DONALD JUDD 88-27 F" respectively on the reverse; each further imprinted "ALUMINUM AG MENZIKEN" on the reverse.
Provenance Paula Cooper Gallery, New York Private Collection, 1990 Christie's, London, Post-War and Contemporary Art Evening Sale, February 6, 2008, lot 31 Acquired at the above sale by the present owner Catalogue Essay “The rectangular plane is given a life span…the sense of singleness also has a duration, but it is only beginning...” DONALD JUDD 1965 As his late work swelled to an increasingly inventive crescendo with its use of colored plexiglass and reflective, anodized aluminum, Donald Judd demonstrated a mastery of form and material that he had endeavored to perfect for nearly 25 years. Executing his first “stacks” in 1965, Judd developed his vertical progressions in his work for the following decades until his death in 1994. Judd’s stacks represent a colossal breakthrough for the artist in that he had found a seminal contribution to art history that would define his career. While uniformity among his stacks had been their defining characteristic earlier in his career, here we find Judd exploring the interplay of interior space and color—engendering variegation within a given structure. While his earlier works displayed an “activated space”—eloquently establishing spatial organization with their equality—Untitled (88-27 Menziken), 1988 possesses a multitude of activated spaces within it, where the core significance of the work exists both in its grand totality and its poignant minutiae. Judd’s revelation, and his true path to international recognition, lies in his groundbreaking 1965 essay “Specific Objects”. The essay has since gained a central role in art criticism for its passionate argument against the forms of the past. Advocating true innovation in American Art, Judd advocates for work devoid of the influence of the past. It was here that coined the term “specific object,” free from the confining labels of sculpture or painting. But Judd’s revolutionary ideas were not based solely in non-conformity; rarely has there been an artist so devoted to his work itself as to believe in the inherent integrity of each piece, its discrete meaning and importance. To allow a piece to fall into the painting or sculpture camp, Judd believed, was to belie the necessity of art. Judd saw the way forward as a manipulation and expression of space and light, and while a sculpture or painting could not have this function, a “specific object” could. While sculptors had been experimenting with simplistic formations for decades prior to Judd’s work, such as David Smith in his 1956 work Five Units Equal, 1956, Judd’s radical differentiation in style came from the intentional boundaries that he set for each piece: “In attempting to isolate and describe the essential nature of art so that its structure and limits could be determined, Judd had created forms which were simple, declarative, and unambiguous. Their specificity of shape, material, and color reflected his conclusions about the limited nature of the truth that art legitimately could communicate. To expunge all implications of an a priori cosmic scheme, Judd restricted himself to the objective facts of color, form, surface, and texture since only these could be trusted. A focus on concrete materiality replaced metaphor and allusion”(B. Haskell, Donald Judd New York, 1988, p. 38). While Judd’s stacks of the early 1960s were mostly uniform with respect to each individual unit, and often similar to each as a whole, he began to branch out during the 1970s and 1980s, finding materials that were more conducive to the exploration of light and space. As colored Plexiglas became part of his repertoire of media, Judd’s work became pronouncedly more ebullient, with separate boxes often assuming differing colors. In addition, as Judd began to incorporate anodized aluminum into his work, hollowing out the faces of his structures, his intentional artistic boundaries remained the same but encased far more contrapuntal interplays of color and structure. In the current lot, Untitled (88-27 Menziken)
12 Donald Judd Untitled (88-27 Menziken) 1988 anodized aluminum, green Plexiglas, in 6 parts each 19 3/4 x 39 x 19 3/4 in. (50.2 x 99.1 x 50.2 cm.) Each imprinted "DONALD JUDD 88-27 A" through "DONALD JUDD 88-27 F" respectively on the reverse; each further imprinted "ALUMINUM AG MENZIKEN" on the reverse.
Provenance Paula Cooper Gallery, New York Private Collection, 1990 Christie's, London, Post-War and Contemporary Art Evening Sale, February 6, 2008, lot 31 Acquired at the above sale by the present owner Catalogue Essay “The rectangular plane is given a life span…the sense of singleness also has a duration, but it is only beginning...” DONALD JUDD 1965 As his late work swelled to an increasingly inventive crescendo with its use of colored plexiglass and reflective, anodized aluminum, Donald Judd demonstrated a mastery of form and material that he had endeavored to perfect for nearly 25 years. Executing his first “stacks” in 1965, Judd developed his vertical progressions in his work for the following decades until his death in 1994. Judd’s stacks represent a colossal breakthrough for the artist in that he had found a seminal contribution to art history that would define his career. While uniformity among his stacks had been their defining characteristic earlier in his career, here we find Judd exploring the interplay of interior space and color—engendering variegation within a given structure. While his earlier works displayed an “activated space”—eloquently establishing spatial organization with their equality—Untitled (88-27 Menziken), 1988 possesses a multitude of activated spaces within it, where the core significance of the work exists both in its grand totality and its poignant minutiae. Judd’s revelation, and his true path to international recognition, lies in his groundbreaking 1965 essay “Specific Objects”. The essay has since gained a central role in art criticism for its passionate argument against the forms of the past. Advocating true innovation in American Art, Judd advocates for work devoid of the influence of the past. It was here that coined the term “specific object,” free from the confining labels of sculpture or painting. But Judd’s revolutionary ideas were not based solely in non-conformity; rarely has there been an artist so devoted to his work itself as to believe in the inherent integrity of each piece, its discrete meaning and importance. To allow a piece to fall into the painting or sculpture camp, Judd believed, was to belie the necessity of art. Judd saw the way forward as a manipulation and expression of space and light, and while a sculpture or painting could not have this function, a “specific object” could. While sculptors had been experimenting with simplistic formations for decades prior to Judd’s work, such as David Smith in his 1956 work Five Units Equal, 1956, Judd’s radical differentiation in style came from the intentional boundaries that he set for each piece: “In attempting to isolate and describe the essential nature of art so that its structure and limits could be determined, Judd had created forms which were simple, declarative, and unambiguous. Their specificity of shape, material, and color reflected his conclusions about the limited nature of the truth that art legitimately could communicate. To expunge all implications of an a priori cosmic scheme, Judd restricted himself to the objective facts of color, form, surface, and texture since only these could be trusted. A focus on concrete materiality replaced metaphor and allusion”(B. Haskell, Donald Judd New York, 1988, p. 38). While Judd’s stacks of the early 1960s were mostly uniform with respect to each individual unit, and often similar to each as a whole, he began to branch out during the 1970s and 1980s, finding materials that were more conducive to the exploration of light and space. As colored Plexiglas became part of his repertoire of media, Judd’s work became pronouncedly more ebullient, with separate boxes often assuming differing colors. In addition, as Judd began to incorporate anodized aluminum into his work, hollowing out the faces of his structures, his intentional artistic boundaries remained the same but encased far more contrapuntal interplays of color and structure. In the current lot, Untitled (88-27 Menziken)
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.jpg "Source: Christie's")
.jpg "Source: Christie's")
