About

Timeline

In the summer of 1960, Judd moved into a loft apartment at 53 East Nineteenth Street, New York, where he began to conceive of a permanent installation of his work and that of other artists. However, it wasn’t until 1968, when Judd purchased the five-story cast iron building at 101 Spring Street, that he had the opportunity to reconstruct the architecture itself, shaping the relationship between each artwork and the surrounding space. Each floor was given a different purpose – such as sleeping, or eating, or working – and Judd looked to the original form of the building to determine how the space was used.

In 1968, Judd purchased the five-story cast iron building at 101 Spring Street, where he had the opportunity to reconstruct the architecture itself, shaping the relationship between each artwork and the surrounding space. Each floor was given a different purpose – such as sleeping, or eating, or working – and Judd looked to the original form of the building to determine how the space was used. Alongside his own art, he installed works by artists including Dan Flavin, Claes Oldenburg, and John Chamberlain, as well as furniture, traditional textiles, and artifacts of forms and materials that attracted him. “I spent a great deal of time placing the art and a great deal designing the renovation in accordance,” he wrote. “The interrelation of the architecture of 101 Spring Street, its own and what I’ve invented with the pieces installed there, has led to many of my newer, larger pieces, ones involving whole spaces.” At 101 Spring Street, Judd was able to install his art as he saw fit, allowing his understanding of particular forms to evolve over time, and gradually shape ideas for new work. Most importantly, these installations were designed to be permanent and visible – a “correction,” as Judd saw it, to the reliance on temporary exhibitions as the primary way to view contemporary art.

As he refined his ideas about the use of space, Judd considered the possibility of a series of permanent installations beyond the urban centers of the art world. In the late 1960s he started taking annual trips with his family to Northern Mexico and the Southwestern United States, and in 1971 the director of the Pasadena Museum of Art, Bill Agee, offered to send a large work which had previously been borrowed by the museum, to any location in the Southwest. This prompted Judd to identify the town of Marfa in West Texas as a place to install the work, choosing the town “because it was the best looking and most practical.” In 1973 Judd purchased two former airplane hangars near the center of the town and began installing work in the east building, later structuring the west building to include a library and a studio.

This was the start of what would become La Mansana de Chinati, known as “The Block”: an enclosed complex of structures where Judd lived with his two children, Flavin and Rainer. In 1974 Judd bought the remaining buildings of The Block, and over the course of several years he gradually shaped the space to reflect his personal understanding of proportion, symmetry, space, and movement. The Block was the physical realization of a series of thoughts about space and form, where art was located as a central experience of daily life. “An alley of green grass and seven plum trees with purple leaves” was aligned with a bedroom window, a pond was designed to hold “a constant triangle of water,” a table and benches designed by Judd were placed in relation to the surrounding structures, and meals were served in the open air.

The development of the Block allowed Judd to expand ideas which had emerged at 101 Spring Street; ideas about the placement of artworks, the integration of art and architecture, and the experience of living and working alongside permanently installed work. During the 1970s, it became clear that measures needed to be taken to safeguard the artworks and the buildings in which they were installed. Judd had seen what could happen to an artist’s work after their death – the paintings of Barnett Newman had been sold and distributed globally, and outdoor sculptures by David Smith had been removed from their original location at the artist’s home and studio. Judd determined that a portion of his own work should remain in place, and in 1977 he wrote the essay which proposed the idea of a Foundation. Two years later, he incorporated those ideas into his will, identifying a Foundation in his name as the primary beneficiary of his estate. “It is my hope that such of my works of art which I own at the time of my death as are installed at 101 Spring Street in New York City, or in Marfa, Texas, will be preserved where they are installed,” he wrote. “I ask the trustees to make every effort to preserve as a unity my works so that such works may serve as a basis for study and appreciation by scholars and the general public.”

In the years which followed, Judd purchased several additional properties in and around Marfa which have since been managed by Judd Foundation. Among these are the former grocery store which served as Judd’s art studio, and the bank building where he based his architecture practice; other former residences and shops were adapted for the purpose of installing art and furniture. In 1986, Judd established the Chinati Foundation in a former military base at the southern edge of the town, where he created large-scale permanent installations of his own work and that of his contemporaries. Though distinct from Judd Foundation, the two organizations work together to support Judd’s legacy and to preserve the spaces he carefully developed.