Donald Judd's Progressions
On Sunday, June 20, 2010 from 6:00 to 8:30 PM, the Chinati Foundation will offer an open viewing of Donald Judd’s horizontal wall works (commonly called “progressions”) and of a suite of drawings made by Judd in preparation for the 15 outdoor works in concrete installed at the museum. Both the wall works and the drawings are part of the museum’s permanent collection, but are infrequently exhibited. Chinati Director Marianne Stockebrand will give a brief talk on each of these two groups of work at 6:30 PM (wall pieces) and 7:15 PM (drawings). Admission is free and refreshments will be served in the main office courtyard. Everyone is encouraged to come out to the museum and see these exhibitions of Judd’s work.
The long wall pieces currently on view in Chinati’s U-shaped special exhibition space date from 1979-80, but the form employed was developed by Donald Judd in the mid-1960s and is usually called a “progression” because of the progressing dimensions of the boxes. Judd wanted to free himself from traditional forms of composition, and to that end he used different computational sequences to develop these works. The wall pieces are built from one long rectangular tube to which boxes are attached in such a way that they run behind and underneath the tube, doubling the height and depth of the work. The progressions in this exhibition are made from galvanized iron, brass, copper, and clear or colored anodized aluminum.
Also on view Sunday evening will be a series of drawings made by Judd in the early 1980s in connection with the outdoor concrete works. In them one can see Judd considering and refining various possibilities for the group of fifteen works. (The concrete works will be available for viewing as well.)
Marianne Stockebrand will discuss Judd’s methods in two short talks to be held in each of the special exhibition spaces.
Starting Sunday, June 27, Chinati will offer a special tour of Judd?s horizontal wall works on Sunday afternoons at 3:00 PM. These special Sunday tours will continue until the exhibition closes at the end of July.