Donald Judd Drawings at Sprueth Magers - Daily Pic by Gopnik
The Daily Pic (London edition): Donald Judd's drawings show him thinking outside the box.
Photo by Stephen White, © Judd Foundation, licensed by VAGA, New York/DACS, London 2012
A drawing from 1970 by Donald Judd – the Minimalist master of the hard, clean line, going messy on paper. I saw the sheet in a show at Sprueth Magers gallery that was totally engrossing. It reinforced the notion that the pure idea behind a Judd – a simple list of a sculpture’s dimensions, its materials, its color – matters as much as its actual effect on our eyes once its built. The drawings could stand as the conceptual essence of each piece, with its realization in hard matter as a kind of afterthought. Or maybe it’s the other way around: Are the drawings so messy and un-Judd-like because only the finished object matters, in all its perfection? Earlier stages don’t have to foreshadow that perfection, so long as they get the raw idea of the object across to a fabricator. Those are the two poles in Judd interpretation: Judd as a radical conceptualist, and Judd as a maker of perceptual abstractions. There’s still no way to decide between them.
See more of our coverage in your search results.
Got a tip? Send it to The Daily Beast here.
Register below to read this article for free or subscribe
to unlock unlimited access to The Daily Beast.
Monthly
$1
First month then $5.99/month
Annual
$35
First year then $59.99/year
Premium
$79
First year then $119.99/year
*Substack access provided by the next business day, using your subscription email. Choosing the Premium plan constitutes your permission to share your subscription email with Substack and your agreement to Substack’s Privacy Policy.
Already have an account? Sign In
Looks like you already have a subscription!
You're all set!
Thanks for subscribing.