Untitled, 1963 | Judd Foundation

This work is one of the early “painted constructions” included in Donald Judd’s first solo exhibition of three-dimensional works, at Green Gallery, New York (Don Judd, December 17, 1963–January 11, 1964). This piece originally incorporated a found object: a parallelogram-shaped metal lathe. For Judd’s 1975 retrospective at the National Gallery of Canada, the top of the work was removed, shipped to Ottawa, and installed on a newly constructed base. That work remains in the National Gallery of Canada’s collection. Meanwhile, a new top, made of aluminum coated in black enamel, was added to the existing base, which Judd installed in Marfa. Judd frequently used parallelograms in his woodblocks and woodblock prints.

Selected Bibliography

Kramer, Hilton. “New York: The Season Surveyed.” Art in America, June 1964, 112.

Hughes, Robert. “Exquisite Minimalist.” Time, May 24, 1971, 68, 69 (ill.).

Smith, Brydon, ed. Donald Judd: Catalogue Raisonné of Paintings, Objects, and Wood-Blocks 1960–1974. Exh. cat. Ottawa: National Gallery of Canada, 1975, 23, 113 (DSS cat. no. 37).

Meyer, James. Minimalism: Art and Polemics in the Sixties. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2001, 56, 58 (fig. 45), 59 (fig. 47).

Haskell, Barbara. Donald Judd. Exh. cat. New York: Whitney Museum of American Art, 1989, 158.

Judd, Donald. Donald Judd Writings. Ed. Flavin Judd and Caitlin Murray. New York: Judd Foundation and David Zwirner Books, 2016, 905 (image 53).