Donald Judd made this painting in 1960, shortly after moving into his first studio at 53 East Nineteenth Street, where he lived and worked from August 1960 until July 1969, when he moved into 101 Spring Street. From that point forward, Judd worked at an increased scale; this painting has a gestural application of paint highly unusual in his work. In late 1959, he began writing art criticism for ARTnews, quickly switching to Arts Magazine after three months. As Roberta Smith wrote of Judd’s criticism, “Judd gets close to an idea of linearity in his conviction that original artists have to develop their inventions, remain consistent to them, and sometimes learn from the work of younger artists. . . . An artist must be original or he will run out of things to do.”1
