Ocula Report Havana Biennial 2019: Constructing the Possible 17 Apr 2019 : Federica Bueti for Ocula I first visited Havana in November 2016, a few days after Fidel Castro died, and just under a year before Hurricane Irma hit Cuba in September 2017. Since then, much has changed, including the hand-painted signs that punctuate the journey from the airport to the city centre, which today do not celebrate the revolution so much as the 'Unidad y...
Ocula Conversation Andrew Stahl and Guo Xiaohui The exhibition Beyond Boundaries at Somerset House in London (12 March–2 April 2019) marked the historic contributions of the Central Academy of Fine Arts, Beijing (CAFA) and the Slade School of Fine Art, University College London, on the occasion of their 100th and 150th anniversaries, respectively. Spread across several rooms of Somerset House's...
Ocula Report The National 2019: New Australian Art 13 Apr 2019 : Elyse Goldfinch for Ocula The National 2019: New Australian Art features work by 70 contemporary Australia-based artists split across three venues: the Art Gallery of New South Wales (AGNSW), Carriageworks, and the Museum of Contemporary Art Australia (MCA) (29 March–21 July 2019), as curated by Isobel Parker Philip, curator of photographs at AGNSW; Daniel Mudie Cunningham,...
Donald Judd was a highly regarded American sculptor and critic. Born in Missouri, Judd moved to New York where he attended the Art Students League before completing graduate studies in art history at Columbia University. Through his practice and writing, Judd had a significant influence on the course of late 20th century sculpture and although he strongly rejected the term, he became a representative of the Minimalist art movement.
Arguably one of the most important American post-war artists, Judd created works that aimed for clarity and autonomy. Working mainly with industrial materials such as Plexiglass, metal, and plywood, Judd demonstrated a fundamental interest in the formal properties of colour, material, form, and space. Pertinent to his practice was a consideration of how a sculpture could exist in a space and how viewers could navigate around them. In doing this, Judd engaged the viewer, making them more aware of their bodies and the way in which they inhabit different spaces, be they public or private. Judd described his own works as 'the simple expression of complex thought.'
Judd’s work is held in many major collections, including the Tate Modern and Tate Britain, London; the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis; the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York; the Museum of Modern Art, New York; the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington D.C.; the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago; and the Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art. Judd’s 1964 essay Specific Objects cemented him as the leading artist and theorist of the Minimalist movement, despite his objections to what he deemed a generalised label.
Donald JuddUntitled, 1991 Clear anodized aluminium and green acrylic sheet
Donald JuddUntitled, 1990 Woodcut on Japanese wove paper
Donald JuddUntitled (90-7 Bernstein), 1990 Red anodized aluminum with transparent plexiglas
Donald JuddWorking Papers: Donald Judd Drawings, 1963-1993 Installation view, Sprüth Magers London
Related Press Brutalist sculpture is the star act at this exhibition in Brussels Wallpaper* : 10 May 2018 'I have a strong credo that an exhibition must embody real objects,' says curator Matthieu Poirier prefacing a walkthrough of The Brutal Play, in which works from Carl Andre, Donald Judd and Robert Morris occupy the Fondation CAB in Brussels. 'These objects remind the viewers of their own bodies.'
Related Press Donald Judd and Kazimir Malevich square off at Galerie Gmurzynska’s new Zurich space Wallpaper* : 26 June 2017 In 1994, Donald Judd was preparing for The Moscow Installation, an exhibition with Kazimir Malevich that would be the first to align the work of the two titans of 20th-century art. 'I would love it but what would Malevich say?' Judd had said when Galerie Gmurzynska had proposed the idea. Sadly, Judd passed away before the exhibition opened and now...
Related Press Turns out the American Dream is more of a nightmare Apollo Magazine : 23 March 2017 The entrance hall to the Sainsbury Exhibitions Gallery at the British Museum is blood-red, and covered in Andy Warhol's psychedelic screenprints of Marilyn Monroe's face.It's a punchy start to the exhibition, The American Dream: Pop to the Present.
Related Press Artist’s toolbox: Donald Judd’s writings reveal a whole new layer of meaning to his work Wallpaper* : 8 February 2017 During his lifetime, Donald Judd (1928–1994) compiled four major collections of his writings. These volumes, which include his gallery reviews, book reviews, essays, articles, statements and reports have until now been considered the artist's written work in its entirety. But a new collection, Donald Judd Writings, containing previously unpublished...
Related Video & Audio A Luta Continua. The Sylvio Perlstein Collection Hauser & Wirth : 8 May 2018 Unfolding across all three floors of Hauser & Wirth New York, 22nd Street, A Luta Continua is the first United States presentation of the Sylvio Perlstein Collection. Curated by David Rosenberg, the exhibition presents more than 360 works by some 250 artists. Among these are Josef Albers, Carl Andre, Diane Arbus, Hans Bellmer, André Breton,...
