Donald Judd

One of the most influential American artists of the post-war period, Donald Judd (1928-1994) changed the course of modern sculpture. This lavishly illustrated survey accompanies a major exhibition at Tate Modern in early 2004, which subsequently tours to European venues. Featuring contributions by Nicholas Serota (Director of Tate), Rudi Fuchs (former Director of The Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam), American critics Richard Shiff and David Raskin, and British artist and critic David Bachelor, it will comprise the most thorough and up-to-date publication on Judd in print. 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, stacked or mounted on the wall. Initially constructed by hand, the sculptures were later industrially manufactured in galvanished iron, steel, plexiglass and plywood. His use of vibrant colour, polished and reflective metals and brightly hued lacquer confounds expectations as to what 'minimalist' sculpture should look like.
Forty-one works from collections around the world, many of them large scale, are being gathered for the exhibition and will be illustrated with full catalogue entries, alongside many other major works by Judd. The contributors 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 colour to his work and his reaction to new man-made materials and artificially generated colours in the late twentieth-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.