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Donald Judd Writings

Donald Judd Writings

Current price: $39.95
Publication Date: November 22nd, 2016
Publisher:
Judd Foundation/David Zwirner Books
ISBN:
9781941701355
Pages:
1056

Description

With hundreds of pages of new and previously unpublished essays, notes, and letters, Donald Judd Writings is the most comprehensive collection of the artist’s writings assembled to date. 

This timely publication includes Judd’s best-known essays, as well as little-known texts previously published in limited editions. Moreover, this new collection also includes unpublished college essays and hundreds of never-before-seen notes, a critical but unknown part of Judd’s writing practice.

Judd’s earliest published writing, consisting largely of art reviews for hire, defined the terms of art criticism in the 1960s, but his essays as an undergraduate at Columbia University in New York, published here for the first time, contain the seeds of his later writing, and allow readers to trace the development of his critical style. The writings that followed Judd’s early reviews are no less significant art-historically, but have been relegated to smaller publications and have remained largely unavailable until now. The largest addition of newly available material is Judd’s unpublished notes—transcribed from his handwritten accounts of and reactions to subjects ranging from the politics of his time, to the literary texts he admired most. In these intimate reflections we see Judd’s thinking at his least mediated—a mind continuing to grapple with questions of its moment, thinking them through, changing positions, and demonstrating the intensity of thought that continues to make Judd such a formidable presence in contemporary visual art.

Edited by the artist’s son, Judd Foundation curator and co-president Flavin Judd, and Judd Foundation archivist Caitlin Murray, this volume finally provides readers with the full extent of Donald Judd’s influence on contemporary art, art history, and art criticism.

About the Author

Flavin Judd is artistic director of Judd Foundation. He has designed architectural spaces and has written for exhibition catalogues and other publications. He is codesigner and coeditor of Donald Judd Writings (2016), Donald Judd Interviews (2019), and Donald Judd Spaces (2020).

Praise for Donald Judd Writings

“Reading Judd’s prose two decades after his death, you will experience, amid the overheated and gaseous atmosphere of the contemporary art world, an invigorating blast of cold, clear air.”
— Jed Perl

“A definite volume with ‘plunk value.’ It makes an impression.” (50 Covers of 2016)
— Michael Carabetta, AIGA Design Archives

“The artist’s exacting aesthetic is faithfully served by both the clear presentation and the physical construction of Donald Judd Writings.”
— Maxwell Donnewald

“...they contain art world truths that many suspect, but are not commonly admitted. For these nuggets alone, younger artists would learn much from this book.”
— Richard Kostelanetz

“Crisp, clean, cool, no-frills, matter-of-fact…”
— Elizabeth Buhe

“A subtle transformation takes place in Judd’s writing that is key to interpreting his artistic work in a new light…”
— Maxwell Donnewald

“The book reveals a deeply incredulous man whose arguments were sustained and broad.”
— Pac Pobric

“Thanks to the force of Judd’s critical intelligence, this [book] is ...by many measures as heavy as any other written by any of his contemporaries.”
— Richard Kostelanetz