Donald Judd made works informally referred to as single stacks comprised of a rectangular prism measuring 6 x 27 x 24 inches. When properly installed at roughly eye level, the work projects from the wall at four times the height of the object itself. Simple in form, a single stack not only encloses the actual space lying within, but simultaneously activates the surrounding area: the wall upon which the object is placed or the entire room within which it is situated. In a note from February 21, 1993 Judd wrote “The smallest, simplest work creates space around it, since there is so much space within.”1
Records indicate that Judd made three single stack, similar to this work, in cold-rolled steel. The first two were fabricated in 1967 and painted in 1972, one in burnt sienna enamel and the other in orange enamel. The third is this single stack and while the date is unknown, it may have been fabricated with the other two in 1967. It is unknown if Judd intended to paint it.2