“A house that does not have one worn, comfy chair in it is soulless.”
“If they don't give you a seat at the table, bring a folding chair.”
2010s, 2016, August, Speech at rally in Wilmington, North Carolina (August 9, 2016)
“Justice is to social justice like a chair to an electric chair.”
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.
Interview for French TV (1998)
“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.
"The Radical Tradition: Fox, Paine, and Cobbett", p. 14
The Trouble Makers: Dissent over Foreign Policy, 1792-1939 (1957)
