{"data":{"id":"662","type":"artist","attributes":{"id":662,"topgoose_id":1946,"tms_id":662,"display_name":"Donald Judd","sort_name":"Judd Donald","display_date":"1928–1994","begin_date":"1928","end_date":"1994","biography":"\u003cp\u003eIn groundbreaking critical and theoretical writings he published in the early 1960s, Donald Judd was an early and articulate advocate for what would become known as Minimalism, though he preferred the term “Specific Objects” to convey that the primary significance of this new work was its physical existence, not any external reference. Judd studied philosophy, art, and art history at the Art Students League and at Columbia University, and his earliest works, including paintings and woodcuts such as \u003ca href=\"/collection/works/11895\"\u003e\u003cem\u003eUntitled (S.22)\u003c/em\u003e\u003c/a\u003e, were simplified abstractions. But by late 1961 Judd gave up painting for sculpture— or, rather, unified the two mediums in a new hybrid: rectangular structures of painted wood or metal that hung on the wall and projected into space.\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eSoon he arrived at his signature modular form: a cantilevered, vertical stack of boxes or series of brackets, set like the rungs of a ladder, that project from the wall, or horizontal progressions of boxes 199 attached to a beam and arranged according to mathematical principles. Rejecting the illusionism of traditional painting, Judd explained that “actual space is intrinsically more powerful and specific than paint on a flat surface.”\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eMost of Judd’s output after 1964, and much of the work of other Minimalists such as \u003ca href=\"/artists/21\"\u003eCarl Andre\u003c/a\u003e, \u003ca href=\"/artists/915\"\u003eRobert Morris\u003c/a\u003e, and \u003ca href=\"/artists/438\"\u003eDan Flavin\u003c/a\u003e, was industrially fabricated, absenting any trace of the artist’s hand and, with it, the notion of singularity. Judd worked with a range of materials, including steel, iron, brass, and copper, and often placed his sculptures directly on the floor to better engage the space—and the people—around them.\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe deep cerulean hue and large- scale installation of the ten identical, open steel rectangles that constitute \u003ca href=\"/collection/works/1332\"\u003e\u003cem\u003eUntitled\u0026nbsp;\u003c/em\u003e\u003c/a\u003e(1966) command spectatorial attention. As with this sculpture, Judd often staggered the intervals between his geometric units with precise spacing in order to emphasize what he called “the thing as a whole” rather than the constituent parts.\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe Day-Glo orange plexiglass sides and top of \u003ca href=\"/collection/works/619\"\u003e\u003cem\u003eUntitled\u0026nbsp;\u003c/em\u003e\u003c/a\u003e(1968) reflect surrounding\nlights, creating a dramatic contrast to the\ndark hollow of its stainless steel interior.\nWhereas in traditional sculpture we are left\nto imagine what fills an interior, in Judd’s\nwork what he called “actual space” is directly\nvisible, both that of the enclosed volumes\nand the hollow inside.\u003c/p\u003e","on_view":false,"artport":false,"biennial":true,"collection":true,"ulan_id":"500010358","wikidata_id":"Q250293","created_at":"2017-08-30T16:54:31.000-04:00","updated_at":"2026-04-26T01:32:27.038-04:00","links":{"artworks":"/api/artists/662/artworks","exhibitions":"/api/artists/662/exhibitions"}}}}