Judd Foundation
Donald Judd
Untitled, 1961
Maroon enamel on recto and cadmium red light oil on verso of wire-enforced glass
18 × 31 × 1/4 inches
(45.7 × 78.7 × .6 cm) (unframed)
This early piece marks Donald Judd’s first use of a found object in a work. Judd incorporated found objects into a number of his early works, as well as in some of his later works, such as untitled, 1992. In another work from 1961, now in the collection of the Museum of Modern Art, New York, Judd inset a tinned steel baking pan into the black-painted composition board and wood surface of the work, giving the piece a real, not illusory, depth.
In 1973, Douglas Crimp wrote of this piece, “Particularly interesting is a painting . . . by Judd . . . consisting of dark red enamel applied to . . . a piece of wire-reinforced glass. On the side facing away from the wall, the paint frames an area of clear glass the shape of a TV screen revealing the wire and the ‘back’ of the other paint surface. Both the will to objecthood and the reasons why Judd was to finally reject painting as always suggesting some kind of illusion are apparent in this eccentric work.”1
1Douglas Crimp, “New York Letter,” Art International, April 1973, 102–3.
Selected Bibliography
Crimp, Douglas. “New York Letter.” Art International, April 1973, 59 (ill.), 102–3.
Smith, Brydon, ed. Donald Judd: Catalogue Raisonné of Paintings, Objects, and Wood-Blocks 1960–1974. Exh. cat. Ottawa: National Gallery of Canada, 1975, 18, 103 (DSS cat. no. 14).
Kellein, Thomas. Donald Judd. Early Work 1955–1968. Exh. cat. New York: D.A.P., 2002, 73 (ill.), 153.
Serota, Nicholas, ed. Donald Judd. Exh. cat. London: Tate Publishing, 2004, 140 (ill.).
Donald Judd: Colored Plexiglas. Exh. cat. New York: L&M Arts, 2009.
Selected Exhibitions
Paula Cooper Gallery, New York, New York, Work from the Early 60’s, January 20 – February 15, 1973.