.jpg?w=1)
.jpg?w=1)
.jpg?w=1)
拍品专文
“A shape, a volume, a color, a surface is something itself. It shouldn't be concealed as part of a fairly different world” - Donald Judd
Untitled stands as an ethereal monument to the enormous influence of Donald Judd, the minimalist artist who radically challenged perceptions of what art could be. Initially known for his art criticism, following his first solo exhibition as an artist in 1963, his heady mix of avant-garde theory and aesthetic acumen gained plaudits as he began to dramatically change the artistic landscape. Highlighting an interest in the relationships between objects, viewers, and the space they both occupy, Untitled also celebrates the raw materials with which art is made. As the artist once noted, "A shape, a volume, a color, a surface is something itself. It shouldn't be concealed as part of a fairly different world" (D. Judd, Complete Writings 1975-1986, Eindhoven, 1987, p. 7). Evolving out of the Modernist emphasis on material and process, Judd stripped the art form down to its most basic components. By doing so, he laid the groundwork for a new understanding of sculptural practice.
Executed in ten discrete elements comprising galvanized iron and translucent green Plexiglas, Untitled is an imposing study in seriality. Per Judd’s instructions, each unit was manufactured to exacting specifications so that the forms repeat in a vertical march up the wall. Looking at the installation head-on, the component at eye level reads as a flat, horizontal rectangle. Its silver surface gleams slightly in the light thanks to the galvanization process, but no Plexiglas is visible. From here, the piece begins to transform as each repetition above and below shows more of the translucent materials. Light shines through the tops and bottoms of each box casting a perpendicular wash of sea-green shadows that serves to connect each element with the rest of the work. “Plexiglas exposes the interior, so the volume is opened up,” Judd explained. “It is fairly logical to open it up so the interior can be viewed. It makes it less mysterious, less ambiguous. I’m also interested in what might be called the blank areas, or just the plain areas, and what is seen obliquely, so the color and the plane and the face are somewhat obscure to the front” (D. Judd quoted in J. Coplans, Don Judd, exh. cat., Pasadena Art Museum, Pasadena, 1971, pp. 36-7). By introducing light and color into his composition, Judd was able to highlight the space between units and more fully connect each segment to the next.
As an important figure in the development of Minimalism (along with Dan Flavin, Carl Ande, Sol LeWitt, and Jo Baer), Judd wrote extensively about the theories surrounding sculptural practice. In 1965, he penned Specific Objects, which came to define his oeuvre and the works of his like-minded peers. Talking about the inherent relationship between sculptures and the space between, around, and beyond, he posited, “It isn’t necessary for a work to have a lot of things to look at, to compare, to analyze one by one, to contemplate. The thing as a whole, its quality as a whole, is what is interesting. The main things are alone and are more intense, clear and powerful. They are not diluted by an inherited format, variations of a form, mild contrasts and connecting parts and areas” (D. Judd, “Specific Objects,” 1965, reprinted in Donald Judd: Early Work 1955–1968, exh. cat., Kunsthalle Bielefeld, 2002, p. 94). By eschewing decoration, ornament, representation, and emotional or autobiographical content, Judd set out to illustrate his ideals in platonic units of mechanical perfection.
Working in a variety of forms, Judd’s investigations purposefully included and activated the space surrounding them. His floor sculptures behave in a manner that mimics traditional monuments throughout history, but wall works like Untitled combine a mixture of sculptural presence with a recontextualization of how one views art in space. Esteemed critic Roberta Smith notes, “Those characteristics of Judd’s metal pieces-lightness and structural tension, self-sufficiency, an isolation which makes us focus on them individually—seem most extreme in the pieces cantilevered to the wall. Their placement seems appropriate and undramatic; they are as indifferent to the wall as is most sculpture to the floor. Yet this indifference is in itself dramatic: we are more aware of their physical placement, more confronted by them than by many of Judd’s smaller floor pieces” (R. Smith in D. Del Balso, et. al., Donald Judd Catalogue Raisonné of Paintings, Objects, and Wood-Blocks 1960-1974, Ottawa, 1975, p. 28). By installing a column of rectangular objects on the wall, Judd upends our reality and forces us to reexamine exactly what we are seeing.
Untitled stands as an ethereal monument to the enormous influence of Donald Judd, the minimalist artist who radically challenged perceptions of what art could be. Initially known for his art criticism, following his first solo exhibition as an artist in 1963, his heady mix of avant-garde theory and aesthetic acumen gained plaudits as he began to dramatically change the artistic landscape. Highlighting an interest in the relationships between objects, viewers, and the space they both occupy, Untitled also celebrates the raw materials with which art is made. As the artist once noted, "A shape, a volume, a color, a surface is something itself. It shouldn't be concealed as part of a fairly different world" (D. Judd, Complete Writings 1975-1986, Eindhoven, 1987, p. 7). Evolving out of the Modernist emphasis on material and process, Judd stripped the art form down to its most basic components. By doing so, he laid the groundwork for a new understanding of sculptural practice.
Executed in ten discrete elements comprising galvanized iron and translucent green Plexiglas, Untitled is an imposing study in seriality. Per Judd’s instructions, each unit was manufactured to exacting specifications so that the forms repeat in a vertical march up the wall. Looking at the installation head-on, the component at eye level reads as a flat, horizontal rectangle. Its silver surface gleams slightly in the light thanks to the galvanization process, but no Plexiglas is visible. From here, the piece begins to transform as each repetition above and below shows more of the translucent materials. Light shines through the tops and bottoms of each box casting a perpendicular wash of sea-green shadows that serves to connect each element with the rest of the work. “Plexiglas exposes the interior, so the volume is opened up,” Judd explained. “It is fairly logical to open it up so the interior can be viewed. It makes it less mysterious, less ambiguous. I’m also interested in what might be called the blank areas, or just the plain areas, and what is seen obliquely, so the color and the plane and the face are somewhat obscure to the front” (D. Judd quoted in J. Coplans, Don Judd, exh. cat., Pasadena Art Museum, Pasadena, 1971, pp. 36-7). By introducing light and color into his composition, Judd was able to highlight the space between units and more fully connect each segment to the next.
As an important figure in the development of Minimalism (along with Dan Flavin, Carl Ande, Sol LeWitt, and Jo Baer), Judd wrote extensively about the theories surrounding sculptural practice. In 1965, he penned Specific Objects, which came to define his oeuvre and the works of his like-minded peers. Talking about the inherent relationship between sculptures and the space between, around, and beyond, he posited, “It isn’t necessary for a work to have a lot of things to look at, to compare, to analyze one by one, to contemplate. The thing as a whole, its quality as a whole, is what is interesting. The main things are alone and are more intense, clear and powerful. They are not diluted by an inherited format, variations of a form, mild contrasts and connecting parts and areas” (D. Judd, “Specific Objects,” 1965, reprinted in Donald Judd: Early Work 1955–1968, exh. cat., Kunsthalle Bielefeld, 2002, p. 94). By eschewing decoration, ornament, representation, and emotional or autobiographical content, Judd set out to illustrate his ideals in platonic units of mechanical perfection.
Working in a variety of forms, Judd’s investigations purposefully included and activated the space surrounding them. His floor sculptures behave in a manner that mimics traditional monuments throughout history, but wall works like Untitled combine a mixture of sculptural presence with a recontextualization of how one views art in space. Esteemed critic Roberta Smith notes, “Those characteristics of Judd’s metal pieces-lightness and structural tension, self-sufficiency, an isolation which makes us focus on them individually—seem most extreme in the pieces cantilevered to the wall. Their placement seems appropriate and undramatic; they are as indifferent to the wall as is most sculpture to the floor. Yet this indifference is in itself dramatic: we are more aware of their physical placement, more confronted by them than by many of Judd’s smaller floor pieces” (R. Smith in D. Del Balso, et. al., Donald Judd Catalogue Raisonné of Paintings, Objects, and Wood-Blocks 1960-1974, Ottawa, 1975, p. 28). By installing a column of rectangular objects on the wall, Judd upends our reality and forces us to reexamine exactly what we are seeing.