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Donald Judd, Untitled, 1963, oil on wood with Plexiglas, National Gallery of Art, Washington, Patrons’ Permanent Fund

Untitled, Judd

This piece was created during a crucial turning-point in Judd’s career, when he moved from painting to overseeing the construction of large but simple three-dimensional objects. This piece sits on the ground without a pedestal, directly in the space of the viewer, and is unframed and exposed in a way that almost no previous sculpture had been. Judd took aim at what he saw as the continuing illusionism of European modernism, pursuing instead a purely lucid form that would exist simply as an object.

09/30/16