Donald Judd Donald Judd was born on June 3, 1928 in Excelsior Springs, Missouri. After high school, he transferred between a few different universities, ultimately studying philosophy at Columbia University (New York) and fine arts at the Art Students League (New York.) Initially interested in painting, Judd had his first solo exhibition at the Panoramas Gallery (New York) in 1957. He aimed at creating simple, untitled paintings that would reject many of the problems he found in post-war European art. Two years later, Judd began his position as a writer for ArtNews and acted as a contributing editor for Arts Magazine until 1965. While at Arts Magazine, Judd supported fellow New York artists, such as Claes Oldenburg, Frank Stella, John Chamberlain, and Dan Flavin. During this time, he also worked as an instructor at the Brooklyn Institute of Arts and Sciences from 1962-4. In the early sixties, Judd shifted his interest from painting to sculpture. Although he was not particularly fond of the term minimalism, his art has become an icon of that style. Judd enjoyed working with materials that had rarely been incorporated into art, such as stainless steel, brass, copper, plexi-glass, plywood and galvanized iron. These materials were used to create large, hollow sculptures that he would then organize into simple, geometric forms and arrangements. While producing these sculptures, Judd also used his previous writing experience to publish a large number of essays that supported the simple, minimalist work his colleagues and he were creating. Judd’s work became larger and more complex during the seventies. In 1972, he moved with his family to Marfa, Texas and explored his interest in architecture and design. This resulted in a large number of commissioned furniture and the opening of the Chianti Foundation in 1986. Established by Judd, the Chianti Foundation (Marfa, Texas) was housed in a remodeled compound of buildings, and exhibited his sculptures and the work of his colleagues. Throughout his career, Judd was honored on numerous occasions. In addition to his two retrospectives at The Whitney Museum of Art (New York) in 1968 and 1988, he participated in the Venice Biennale in 1980 and Documenta in 1982. In 1992, he was elected as a member of the Royal Academy of Art. Judd passed away on February 12, 1994 in New York. Edited by R.S. «back