The work of Donald Judd (1928–1994), one of the most significant American artists of the post-war period, has come to define what has been referred to as Minimalist art—a label to which the artist strongly objected on the grounds of its generality. The unaffected, straightforward quality of Judd’s work demonstrates his strong interest in color, form, material, and space. With the intention of creating work that could assume a direct material and physical "presence" without recourse to grand philosophical statements, he eschewed the classical ideals of representational sculpture to create a rigorous visual vocabulary that sought clear and definite objects as its primary mode of articulation.
Read MoreJudd’s work has been exhibited internationally since the 1960s and is included in numerous museum collections. A survey exhibition of the artist’s work was organized by the Tate Modern, London, in 2004 and traveled to the K20 Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen, Düsseldorf, and Kunstmuseum Basel. Other important exhibitions of the artist’s work include Donald Judd: Early Work 1955–1968, which traveled from the Kunsthalle Bielefeld, Germany to the Menil Collection, Houston in 2002–2003; Donald Judd: Colorist, held at the Sprengel Museum, Hannover, Germany, Kunsthaus Bregenz, Austria, and Musée d’Art Moderne et d’Art Contemporain, Nice in 2000–2001; Donald Judd: a good chair is a good chair, a comprehensive exhibition of the artist’s furniture and related drawings that was organized by Ikon Gallery, Birmingham, England in 2010; and Donald Judd: The Multicolored Works at the Pulitzer Foundation for the Arts, St. Louis, in 2013.
Permanent installations of the artist’s work can be found at Judd Foundation in New York City, at 101 Spring Street, and Marfa, Texas, along with the neighboring Chinati Foundation. Judd Foundation's spaces are accessible to the public by guided visit.
Judd Foundation (Rainer Judd and Flavin Judd, Co-Presidents) is exclusively represented by David Zwirner. In 2011 in New York, the gallery exhibited a selection of works by the artist drawn from his seminal 1989 exhibition held at the Kunsthalle Baden-Baden, Germany, and in 2013 a major installation by Judd was included in Dan Flavin and Donald Judd, the inaugural exhibition at David Zwirner’s new 20th Street location in New York. Also in 2013, the gallery presented an exhibition of works by Judd at our Mayfair, London location, the first gallery presentation of this seminal artist in London in nearly fifteen years and the first significant exhibition of Judd’s work in the U.K. since his 2004 retrospective at Tate Modern, London.
In 2015, the gallery hosted an exhibition of the artist's works in Cor-ten steel at our 537 West 20th Street location in New York, the first comprehensive presentation of the artist's work in this distinctive material.
Text courtesy David Zwirner.