[Studies of Colonial Architectural Fragments and Stepped Circle, Baja California, Mexico; and 2 Views from train en route from New York to Marfa, Texas]

1965–67

Not on view

In these carefully composed studies of vernacular architecture in Baja, Mexico, Judd enlarged the scope of his art by revealing primitive antecedents to the industrial logic of accumulation, standardization, and geometric form more overtly referred to in his modular sculpture. Unselfconscious ur-forms such as a towering stack of logs, the stone walls of crumbling buildings, and successive views of a mysterious, stepped circle embedded in the barren landscape display the mind's deep-coded ordering procedures, and thus are a readymade metaphor for Judd's own quest for irreducible form. They also prefigure the interest shown in the picturesque potential of ruins by then emerging "Earthworks" artists like Robert Smithson and Michael Heizer, who would soon apply the strategies of Minimalism to the untamed world outside of the gallery and museum.

Artwork Details

Overview

Provenance

Notes

Exhibition History

Title: [Studies of Colonial Architectural Fragments and Stepped Circle, Baja California, Mexico; and 2 Views from train en route from New York to Marfa, Texas]
Artist: Donald Judd (American, Excelsior Springs, Missouri 1928–1994 Marfa, Texas)
Date: 1965–67
Medium: Chromogenic prints
Dimensions: 8.9 x 8.9 cm (3 1/2 x 3 1/2 in.), each
Classification: Photographs
Credit Line: Purchase, The Horace W. Goldsmith Foundation Gift, through Joyce and Robert Menschel, 2001
Object Number: 2001.60.1–.15
Rights and Reproduction: © Donald Judd Estate/Foundation
Curatorial Department: Photographs

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