Donald Judd
Untitled, 1969

Clear anodized aluminum and green plexiglass
33 × 68 × 48 inches
(83.8 × 172.7 × 121.9 cm)

Artist
Type
Object 67
Date
1960s 72
Location

In 1969, Donald Judd conceived of a number of rectangular floor works of anodized aluminum with open ends and lined with plexiglass on the inside; they were made in blue, violet, green, and dark brown. “The box with the plexiglass inside,” Judd said in 1971, “is an attempt to make a definite second surface.” He continued:

The inside is radically different from the outside. While the outside is definite and rigorous, the inside is indefinite. The interior appears to be larger than the exterior. The plastic is very slippery in look. There is one thing I know how to do well and that is to produce a plain, austere piece. It’s a quality that I like, and I get very skeptical about it. But I like to try other things to see what happens to the shape and surface. Also, I like to try different colors on the same form by using different materials.1

“Don Judd: An Interview with John Coplans,” in John Coplans, Don Judd, exh. cat. (Pasadena, CA: Pasadena Art Museum, 1971),44.

Selected Bibliography

Smith, Brydon, ed. Donald Judd: Catalogue Raisonné of Paintings, Objects, and Wood-Blocks 1960–1974. Exh. cat. Ottawa: National Gallery of Canada, 1975, 204 (DSS cat. no. 202).

Donald Judd: Räume / Spaces. Ostfildern: Cantz, 1993, 45.

Judd, Donald. “A Portrait of the Artist as His Own Man: Sculptor Donald Judd Traces the Reasons He Settled in Marfa, Texas.” House & Garden, April 1985, 154 (ill.), 155 (ill.).

Judd, Donald. Some Aspects of Color in General and Red and Black in Particular. Sassenheim: Sikkens Foundation, 1993, 14.

It’s All in the Fit: The Work of John Chamberlain. Marfa, TX: The Chinati Foundation, 2009, 214, 215 (fig. 2).