The Artist's Studio: Donald Judd

Of the generation following the Abstract Expressionists, Don Judd was one of the key figures among American artists who pioneered new directions in the 1960s. He was born in the Midwest in 1928, eventually settled in New York and supported himself by writing for art magazines. At Columbia University, under Rudolf Wittkower and Meyer Schapiro, he earned a masters degree in art history. Judd had begun as a painter but soon was drawn to making objects using common materials such as plywood, metal and Plexiglas. In 1968 he bought a cast-iron building that housed his family, his studio and a showroom on the ground-floor. There he could exhibit his work which he preferred to call "specific objects," the title of his manifesto published in 1965. In it he rejected traditional European painting and sculpture in favor of three-dimensional work. Soon after our studio visit, Judd opened a second studio in Marfa, a remote small town in West Texas. It was to be the permanent home for his family whic