Donald Judd (Hardcover)

by David Batchelor (Author), John Jervis (Author), David Raskin (Author), Nicholas Serota (Author), Richard Shiff (Author), Donald Judd (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description
One of the most influential American artists of the post-war period, Donald Judd changed the course of modern sculpture. Beginning as an art critic and then a painter, Judd moved into three dimensions with the box-like structures he produced in the early 1960s, either arranged on the gallery floor or mounted on the wall. Initially constructed by hand, the sculptures were later industrially manufactured in galvanized iron, steel, plexiglass, and plywood. His use of vibrant color, polished and reflective metals, and brightly hued lacquer confounded and continues to confound expectations of what "minimalist" sculpture should look like.
This lavishly illustrated survey features 41 works from collections around the world, many of them large scale, each illustrated with full catalogue entries alongside many other major works by Judd. Contributors Nicholas Serota (Director of the Tate), Rudi Fuchs (former Director of The Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam), American critics Richard Schiff and David Raskin, and British artist and critic David Batchelor explore the conflicts between previous critical interpretations of Judd and his own philosophical, political, and moral understanding of his work. Judd's critical response to the work of other artists is examined, as is the importance of color to his work, and his reaction to new man-made materials and artificially generated color in the late-20th-century environment. A section on Judd's installations at Marfa in Texas, and an extensive new chronology, compiled by Judd's assistant, Jeff Kopie, are also included. Donald Judd compromises the most thorough and up-to-date publication on Judd in print today.

Essays by Rudi Fuchs, David Batchelor, John Jervis, Richard Schiff, Nicholas Serota and David Raskin.

Hardcover, 9.5 x 12.25 in./288 pgs / 100 color and 30 b & w.

Language Notes
Text: German, English --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 288 pages
• Publisher: D.A.P./Tate (March 2, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1891024892
• ISBN-13: 978-1891024894
• Product Dimensions: 11.8 x 9.8 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.3 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #786,365 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

  Popular in this category: (What's this?)

  #6 in

  Books > Arts & Photography > Artists, A-Z > ( J-L ) > Judd, Donald

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

26 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The One to Have, May 13, 2004

By	Patrick Winters (Venice, CA USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

If you only buy one Donald Judd book in your lifetime, this may be the one to have. Beautifully designed and produced, with gorgeous full-bleed color reproductions, it is comprehensive in covering all the major aspects of his production (prints possibly excepted), including early paintings, the transition to sculpture, the late work, and the work on major art environments, i.e. Marfa and Spring Street. Most effectively, it groups major aspects of Judd's work into categories (stacks, linear wall pieces, series of boxes, etc.) clearly laying out his initial concepts, their evolution over time, and their relationships to other categories of work. In my brief time with this book, I have already come away with a much greater understanding of Judd's oeuvre and ways of thinking, thanks largely to the wonderfully didactic quality of the entire enterprise. I am assuming Nicolas Serota, the director of the Tate Modern and the book's editor, is largely responsible for this. Of the several intriguing essays, I have only thoroughly read the one by David Batchelor, a British Judd-ologist who addresses the issue of color. It alone is worth the price of the book, tracing aspects of the work back to initially wan late-nineteenth century attempts at the artistic representation of machinery, and then bringing us forward to Judd's thorough (albeit fascinatingly undocumented) familiarity with the technology and varieties of contemporary car paints (apparently his selection of [always impure] colors referenced specific automobiles, i.e. 1958 Ford Galaxy Celeste Green). The essay is full of wonderful observations such as Batchelor's equation of traditional brushes with organic nature, actual embodiments of their classical subject matter, that had to ultimately be abandoned by Judd (and of course others) in his search for artistic tools reflective of mechanization and urban modernity. Furthermore, Batchelor illustrates how the tools may have changed but Judd's concern with color, texture, and composition remained rooted in art-historical and even painterly considerations. Judd vehemently rejected the minimalist label, such label in Batchelor's view having contributed to critics' failure to recognize the sophisticated color and sensuality of the works. And finally, we are led to consider how the works may be as much about problems of painting and even (gasp) allusion and representation as about problems of sculpture. Great stuff.