Donald Judd, William C. Agee (1968) Don Judd, p. 15
1960s
Famous Donald Judd Quotes
1960s
Donald Judd (1983) in: Donald Judd (1987) Complete writings, 1975-1986. p. 28 ; Quoted in: " Archives http://www.juddfoundation.org/archives" at juddfoundation.org, 2014
1980
Source: 1980, "Art and Architecture," 1987, p. 177
1990s
Source: Artforum International. Vol. 32 (1994), p. 38
“Half or more of the best new work in the last few years has been neither painting nor sculpture.”
Source: 1960s, "Specific Objects," 1965, p. 74; Lead paragraph; partly cited in: Diane Waldman. Carl Andre https://archive.org/stream/carlandre00wald#page/6/mode/1up. Published 1970 by Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York. p. 6
Context: Half or more of the best new work in the last few years has been neither painting nor sculpture. Usually it has been related, closely or distantly, to one or the other. The work is diverse, and much in it that is not in painting and sculpture is also diverse. But there are some things that occur nearly in common.
Donald Judd Quotes about art
Donald Judd (1963), quoted in: Joseph Kosuth, (1969), " Art after Philosophy http://www.ubu.com/papers/kosuth_philosophy.html"
1960s
Donald Judd, in: Arts Yearbook. (1964) p. 23
1960s
1960s, "Oral history interview with Donald Judd," 1965
Donald Judd (1987) Complete writings, 1975-1986. p. 35 : Cited in: Marjanovic, Marianne Berger. "To build new ways of talking about the work": Hovedbegreper i Donald Judds kunstteori." (2005).
1980
Donald Judd, in: American Dialog, Vol. 1-5, (1964), p. ix
1960s
Context: Any combining, mixing, adding, diluting, exploiting, vulgarizing, or popularizing of abstract art deprives art of its essence and depraves the artist's artistic consciousness. Art is free, but it is not a free-for-all. The one struggle in art is the struggle of artists against artists, of artist against artist, of the artist-as-artist within and against the artist-as- man, -animal, or -vegetable. Artists who claim their artwork comes from nature, life, reality, earth or heaven, as 'mirrors of the soul' or 'reflections of conditions' or 'instruments of the universe', who cook up 'new images of man' - figures and 'nature-in-abstraction' - pictures, are subjectively and objectively, rascals or rustics.
1960s, "Oral history interview with Donald Judd," 1965
Context: I think most of the art now is involved with a denial of any kind of absolute morality, or general morality. I think most of us in one way or another are involved in ideas of a fairly loose world, however it's expressed, whether obviously as in Chamberlain or just accidentally, or, oh, like Newman.
Donald Judd Quotes about painting
Source: 1960s, "Specific Objects," 1965, p. 76; As quoted in: De gids, Vol. 131, Nr. 1-5, (1968), p. 262
Quoted in: Donald Jud http://www.theartstory.org/artist-judd-donald.htm at theartstory.org, 2014
1960s, "Oral history interview with Donald Judd," 1965
“A painting by Newman is finally no simpler than one by Cezanne.”
Source: 1960s, "Specific Objects," 1965, p. 77. Partly quoted in: Washington Gallery of Modern Art (Washington, D.C.), Barbara Rose (1967) New aesthetic: Exhibition May 6-June 25, 1967. p. 45
Context: A work needs only to be interesting. Most works finally have one quality. In earlier art the complexity was displayed and built the quality. In recent painting the complexity was in the format and the few main shapes, which had been made according to various interests and problems. A painting by Newman is finally no simpler than one by Cezanne. In the three-dimensional work the whole thing is made according to complex purposes, and these are not scattered but asserted by one form. It isn't necessary for a work to have a lot of things to look at, to compare, to analyze one by one, to contemplate. The thing as a whole, its quality as a whole, is what is interesting. The main things are alone and are more intense, clear and powerful.
1960s
Source: Arts Magazine, Vol. 38, (1963) p. 7
Source: 1960s, "Specific Objects," 1965, p. 75; Cited in: Diane Waldman. Carl Andre https://archive.org/stream/carlandre00wald#page/6/mode/1up. Published 1970 by Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York. p. 6
Donald Judd Quotes
Source: 1990s, "It’s Hard to Find a Good Lamp," 1993, p. 7; Quoted in: " Furniture http://www.juddfoundation.org/furniture/judd-furniture" at juddfoundation.org, 2014
Context: The art of a chair is not its resemblance to art, but is partly its reasonableness, usefulness and scale as a chair. These are proportion, which is visible reasonableness. The art in art is partly the assertion of someone's interest regardless of other considerations. A work of art exists as itself; a chair exists as a chair itself. And the idea of a chair isn't a chair.
“Most art is fragile and some should be placed and never moved again.”
Donald Judd (1987) Complete writings, 1975-1986. p. 111
1980
Context: It takes a great deal of time and thought to install work carefully. This should not always be thrown away. Most art is fragile and some should be placed and never moved again. Some work is too large, complex and expensive to move. Somewhere a portion of contemporary art has to exist as an example of what the art and its context were meant to be.
“If a chair or a building is not functional,”
Source: 1990s, "It’s Hard to Find a Good Lamp," 1993, p. 7; Lead paragraph; as cited in: Richard Padovan. Towards Universality: Le Corbusier, Mies and De Stijl, (2013), p. 82
Context: Eighteen years ago someone asked me to design a coffee table. I thought that a work of mine which was essentially a rectangular volume with the upper surface recessed could be altered. This debased the work and produced a bad table which I later threw away. The configuration and the scale of art cannot be transposed into furniture and architecture. The intent of art is different from that of the latter, which must be functional. If a chair or a building is not functional, if it appears to be only art, it is ridiculous... A work of art exists as itself; a chair exists as a chair itself.
“A work needs only to be interesting.”
Source: 1960s, "Specific Objects," 1965, p. 77. Partly quoted in: Washington Gallery of Modern Art (Washington, D.C.), Barbara Rose (1967) New aesthetic: Exhibition May 6-June 25, 1967. p. 45
Context: A work needs only to be interesting. Most works finally have one quality. In earlier art the complexity was displayed and built the quality. In recent painting the complexity was in the format and the few main shapes, which had been made according to various interests and problems. A painting by Newman is finally no simpler than one by Cezanne. In the three-dimensional work the whole thing is made according to complex purposes, and these are not scattered but asserted by one form. It isn't necessary for a work to have a lot of things to look at, to compare, to analyze one by one, to contemplate. The thing as a whole, its quality as a whole, is what is interesting. The main things are alone and are more intense, clear and powerful.
1980
Source: Flash Art, Nr. 132-134, (1987), p. 36: Cited in: " ‘Donald Judd: Stacks’ at Mnuchin Gallery http://galleristny.com/2013/10/donald-judd-stacks-at-mnuchin-gallery/" by Andrew Russeth at galleristny.com, 10/01/13.
Donald Judd (1965) in Artforum interview, as quoted in: Richard Shiff (2012) Doubt,
1960s
Donald Judd (1974), as quoted in: Joseph J. Rishel et al. (2009) Cézanne and beyond. p. 94: Talking about the work of Cezanne.
1970s
Donald Judd (1967), in: Perspecta 11 (1967), p. 44; Quoted in: James Fitzsimmons (1979) Art International. Vol 23. p. 69
1960s
“Everything sculpture has, my work doesn’t.”
Donald Judd (1967). quoted in: Joseph Kosuth, (1969), " Art after Philosophy http://www.ubu.com/papers/kosuth_philosophy.html"
1960s
“Society is basically not interested in art. Art has a purpose of its own.”
Chinati: Judd’s Concretes Re-open http://adobeairstream.com/art/chinati-judds-concretes-re-open, AdobeAirstream.com, 9 October 2009
Attributed from posthumous publications
“A simple box is really a complicated thing.”
Box of delights http://www.newstatesman.com/node/147350, NewStatesman.com, 23 February 2004
Attributed from posthumous publications
Donald Judd (1967), quoted in: Alexander Alberro, Blake Stimson (1999) Conceptual Art: A Critical Anthology. p. 204
1960s
“Since I leapt into the world an empiricist, ideality was not a quality I wanted.”
Donald Judd in Art Journal, (1981); Quoted in: David Raskin. Donald Judd. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2010.
1980
Source: 1980, "Art and Architecture," 1987, p. 196
Donald Judd, "Local History" (1964); Quoted in: Judd (1975, p. 151); and cited in: David Raskin. Donald Judd. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2010.
1960s
Source: 1990s, "It’s Hard to Find a Good Lamp," 1993, p. 21