1.24.2011

donald judd is a fucking genius

Furniture is important to me.
I've always reworked the space I lived in and have often made furniture for it.
Perhaps the first things I made- about some 15 years ago- that were really furniture were some metal chairs and a table. 
Now I'm making a limited edition of chairs, 
a desk and a table.
I started making them in Texas in 1978.
Since there is no decent furniture for sale in the small town where I live,
it is necessary to make it.
So far I haven't made furniture for anyone else,
only for myself.
The idea of making furniture to sell is very recent.
In Texas the furniture is based on the width of the wood.
We use pine, 
and the construction, 
by Celedonio Mediano, 
is simple and straightforward.
In New York we use birch or maple,
and the construction is extremely sophisticated.
The main thing about the chairs is the vertical planks that make up the backs.
The front and the sides are just different ideas.
I spent a lot of time trying to make the proportions even,
one to two,
which I like,
or two to three,
and so forth.
Much of the harmony in an environment is in its proportions.
It's an old idea in architecture,
but I don't think people now are very concerned about it.
When I fix up or make buildings,
their proportions are very important to me.
The buildings are primarily for the installation of art.
I have a lot of my own work,
and I want it installed properly.
Then I have quite a bit of other peoples work,
and it takes up a lot of space.
I am very serious about this,
and that is the main reason why I keep getting more space.
I've spent quite a bit of time on the furniture,
so I don't consider it frivolous.
But I am an artist,
and therefore the art is important.
I make a big distinction between the art and the furniture and architecture.
I'm careful about taking ideas from art and placing them in another context.

Donald Judd
1983

9 comments:

  1. are theses scans from a catalog?

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  2. They are from the book "Artist Design Furniture". I had never seen the images before. It seems Genius Judd sent them to the author himself. UPDATE: The photos were taken by James Dearing who was Judd's assistant from 1969-1983. My feeling is that they are some of the earliest (if not the earliest) pictures of his first chairs....

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  3. - it shows comfort in simplicity rather than in the complex and costly; it is moral geometry, inasmuch as it defines our sense of proportion to the universe -

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  4. There is something I am just not getting about the Judd chairs. I like his colored wall box shelves and some of his tables. But those chairs just have never done it for me. They look so clunky and I've always thought if there is no angle to the seat then it should be lower so the knees ease the lower back and what about the lower shelf cantilever hitting you square in the calf. I find you Judd lovers to be at the pinnacle of visual astuteness so I know there is something I am missing. Help me out here..

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  5. fab.-might it be that you might switch
    from an anal retentive
    to a more attentive mood so the stool
    wont hit you square somewhere.

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  6. Not too long ago I started thinking of Donald Judd as a Charlotte Perriand hack, it seems I can now add De Stijl to the list as well.

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  7. Nope Carl I don't think that's it, but touché probably applies to criticism in general but I am more befuddled.

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  8. This was a nice post. I'm taking a 3D design class, and the assignment is "create a pencil holder that looks like it was designed by Donald Judd." Knowing proportions he favored is gonna be very helpful for this assignment.

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