Donald Judd’s Untitled (Wall Project) finds complexity in the simplicity of its design. Composed of two Plexiglas sheets displayed within separate rectangular recesses in a wall, the work engages in dialogue with its surrounding environment. The architecture in which the piece is situated is rendered a necessary component of the work, allowing it to exist beyond the confinements of its simplified form and colour. Judd was drawn to industrial materials, due to theinherent malleability and anonymity. These untainted sheets allow for clarity and simplicity, aligning with the artist’s motivations to break free from the confinements of conventional painting and sculpture. Inherently collaborative, the creative process of Untitled (Wall Project) is complete once the owner follows Judd's instructions on how to install it in their own space.
Judd’s Untitled (Wall Project) is part of the Wall Works series, launched in the early 1990s by Edition Schellman to investigate the symbiotic relationship between art and architecture. Conceived from Jörg Schellman's interest in architectural installations and the potential for realising them as editions, the project invited artists to envision site-specific artworks that could create dynamic dialogues with a variety of environments. The resulting artworks, produced in small editions of around twelve to fifteen from artists including Mona Hatoum, Damien Hirst, Kara Walker and Andy Warhol, are diverse and encompass a wide range of media. Each Wall Work is accompanied with installation instructions specified by the artist, allowing the artwork to be installed in a variety of locations. Fusing art and architecture, the dynamic nature of these works unfolds in response to the characteristics of their environment, as unique relationships and meanings are created with each iteration.
“Increasingly the limitation of fine art editions to prints and objects did not seem to reflect the technical possibilities and the recent developments in artistic strategies and actual art production. Installation in architecture had become an important issue both in theory and artistic practice. Edition Schellmann was trying to develop an idea as to how the concept of installation in a given architectural space could be realised as an edition. The result was the Wall Works project. It celebrates the basic idea of architecture being the ‘mother, the synthesis of the arts’. From the cave drawing on, in the development of the work of art, it has been an integral part of architecture.”
—Jörg Schellmann
Provenance
Personal copy of the publisher and part of the Archive of Edition Schellmann since time of publication
Literature
Jörg Schellmann 30 Jörg Schellmann, ed., Wall Works, Munich/New York, 1999, pp. 98-99 Jörg Schellmann, ed., Forty Are Better Than One, Munich/New York, 2009, pp. 176-177 and p. 402
Donald Judd came to critical acclaim in the 1960s with his simple, yet revolutionary, three-dimensional floor and wall objects made from new industrial materials, such as anodized aluminum, plywood and Plexiglas, which had no precedent in the visual arts. His oeuvre is characterized by the central constitutive elements of color, material and space. Rejecting the illusionism of painting and seeking an aesthetic freed from metaphorical associations, Judd sought to explore the relationship between art object, viewer and surrounding space with his so-called "specific objects." From the outset of his three-decade-long career, Judd delegated the fabrication to specialized technicians. Though associated with the minimalist movement, Judd did not wish to confine his practice to this categorization.
Inspired by architecture, the artist also designed and produced his own furniture, predominantly in wood, and eventually hired a diverse team of carpenters late in his career.
1992 Two blue Plexiglas sheets, to be installed in two recesses on a white painted wall. both Plexiglas sheets 60.1 x 85.2 x .6 cm (23 5/8 x 33 1/2 x 1/4 in.) installation size variable and according to wall Signed by Flavin Judd, Rainer Judd, and Marianne Stockebrand (Directors of the Donald Judd Estate) and numbered 10/12 in black ink on the accompanying Certificate of Authenticity (there were also 4 artist's proofs), published by Edition Schellmann, Cologne and New York. This Wall Work is to be installed according to the artist's specifications on the Certificate of Authenticity.