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Judd at SFMOMA

August 17, 2018
By: Aaron Peasley

Donald Judd, known for his minimalist milieu, exerts an eternal influence over both art and design. In recent years, the artist’s furniture has drawn increasing attention with exhibitions, books and stratospheric auction prices. His work is a frequent reference point in work by emerging and contemporary designers.

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Newly fabricated Donald Judd furniture for visitor use outside Donald Judd: Specific Furniture, 2018 (installation view, SFMOMA); photo: Katherine Du Tiel.

Donald Judd: Specific Furniture includes 30 pieces of furniture and 25 drawings in addition to newly fabricated designs that include chairs, benches, a stool and a combined seat/table/shelf. All pieces were made with the same fabricators and materials that Judd used in his lifetime.

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Donald Judd: Specific Furniture, 2018 (installation view, SFMOMA); photo: Matthew Millman.

San Francisco’s downtown museum, SFMOMA, is drawing some of Judd’s biggest fans with its latest exhibition, Donald Judd: Specific Furniture, which explores the minimalist artist’s furniture or “specific objects” as he termed them. Adding another layer of context, the exhibition combines Judd’s own furniture with designs he owed and admired (there are also newly fabricated pieces, now being sold by the Judd Foundation).

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Library, 3rd Floor, 101 Spring Street, Judd Foundation, New York; © Judd Foundation; photo: Matthew Millman.

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5th Floor, 101 Spring Street, Judd Foundation, New York; © Judd Foundation; photo: Matthew Millman.

90 years after his birth, Donald Judd’s influence remains leonine. This exhibition sheds new light on the man and his approach to space - in addition to artist, designer and critic, Judd was a passionate furniture collector, focusing on pieces that exuded material substance and design rigor with work by Alvar Aalto, Mies van der Rohe, Rudolph Schindler and Gustav Stickley.

On view at SFMOMA until November 4, 2018.

www.sfmoma.org

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Donald Judd at Eichholteren, 1990; courtesy Judd Foundation; © FBM Studio; image: Franziska & Bruno Mancia