Donald Judd: Specific objects
Todays lecture was based on the art historian and sculpture donald Judd, the focus is on his essay 'specific objects', and the artists and pieces of work that he talks about and the ideas he communicates. as a figure judd is key to questions about the development of contempary art, althoguh known for a sculpture artist he is also known famously for his training as an art historian and the writting of the essay specific objects. from 1928-1994 donold judd lived as someone who was described as a minimalist artist, however he didnt accept that lable. he didint consider his work to be part of the sculpture dicipline, this was because he observed what was happening in america in the art and design world in the 1960's...
the essay starts by stating that judd thinks half or most of the painting and the sculpture work hapening, were not just painting or just sculpture, the work was related to one or the other, they were diverse, however they didnt consitute a movement or style. the differences were greater than the simelarities.
up until the time of the essay, art was defined by either a 2D or 3D space, our work today in in some way in debted to judss, ideas, we dont think about work as part of one dicipline, but one that can spread and relate to all diciplines appropriate. we just make something and dont define it by a practice.
the motivation during new york at this time was trying to ge away from the convention of painting and sculpture, painting is seen as making 3D objets in 2D space.
before judd's ideas came into play painters like paul cezzane create their work, he was known for his sence of depth, the image is a forest scene, using a garden scene plays in the idea that we are familiar, we know what it looks like, when painting refuse to pull on reality they just become paint. the painting is still abstract however the sence of depth is there.
a sculpture by romanian artist constantein brancusi 'the endless column', the piece caught the attention of judd at this time, he states that he piece is not an illusion, the sculpture is a self contained object in space, this is the opitimy of the old style work in sculpture that judd critiques.
Brancusi's sculptures were what judd was interesed in, he was dealing with forms one after another but not sperate however in repeat pattern. its far more modern in 1981, than david smith's work in 1964 sugesting the figure form.
the new work we produce that judd talks about is open and more extended, or less enviromenal you might say. these days instalations are more popluar, most are neither painting or scultture or even preformance, the main difference judd found were tha=e change in work through jasper johns false start. lack of depth appears, reality dissapears and colour becomes more radient. one massive change was the apperence of text in the image, but what drew judds attention was that the words were the colours, literalising them and cancelling the sence of them just being colour creating an image. judd found this a strange development in art and design and critiqued the old rules of colour, the two paintings were compleate contrasts. the development refused to tell a story about the world, judd calls this a 'specific object'.
the piece by carl andre, entitled paint on a canvas, was one piece of work that really changed the opinion of judds ideas, he artist dosent use the square format of the canvas, usual paintings have a fcocal point in the centre, carl has done to opposit and taken out the imddle of the canvas taking it away from a conventional painting. however he also thought the piece created illusion, the stripes were indicating a flicker. personally i understand what judd was saying however i dont think the flicker is aparent, but i think this is because i am so used to this kind of work and seeing ilusaion, the intentionof an illusion has to be more apparent than what it might of being years ago.
another thing that the change brought was the idea of industricalisation and using industrial materials, both factory made and fabricated. metalic paint for example on this piece, the art had gone from oil or acrylic paint to materials like car paint.
lee bontecou made pieces like the one below, he used welded steel, canvas, black fabric and wire. this piece is not considered a painting but also is not quite a sculpture but is becoming. It's made of materials that are associated with scultpute but the piece is coming out from paintily canvas
he described it as a specific object. after the second world war this was challenging painting and sculpture that had gone before it.
yoyoi kusama a japansees artist who came to work in new york, filled rooms with objects. she created instalations that can be walked into, this was becoming beyond the bounds of self contained objects, the small objects were creating an enviroment. this is the kind of work judd explands on in his essay as he oes along time and artists development
clas oldenberg, usually asociated with pop art created this, the 'small yellow pie'
he made a big display of his work in an exhabition: he made cakes from plaster stretched over wire frames, this was a very spercific thing and odd to judd.
i dont think that this piece looks like a pie at all, i dont see the resembelence t cake and if i didnt see the name of it i would have thought it was a rock of some sort. i dont perticually like the piece, i dont see the point and i dont think its aestheticly appealing.
This piece is called soft switches, its an instalation of a giant light switch made from vinyl judd called it a perculiar object. initally i thoguth this was some sort of leather bag, but it seems the artist minipulated vinyl to cretae a distorted image. i like the idea, i think it has brought an interesting outcome and it could be something to explore in more depth. loking into any other artists that used a simelar technique.
dan flavin made this piece 'pink out of a corner' using flurecent light and metal fixture. he was one of the first artists to start looking at everyday objects and turing them into art, using industrial objects and this interested judd in his way of working. This is another way of making painting because it involves no brush however colour is projected onto a wall from the flurenent glow. its on optical ilustion in a way as the glow the tube emmits dosent belong to itself. he was the first artist noticed to really push forwrad with materials.
now we start to look at donald judd's work in particular 'relief' made in 1961. Before the essay, he starts to think about relation ship between paint and sculpture. he creates this using oil on composition board and mounted on wood with inset tinned steel baking pan. its a 3d piece sat in flat canvas. in judd's work you can see his interest in thistopic from the work he produces.
imagine what it was like to do this for the first time? i think people would have dissapproved and some people may have loved it, but it takes time to understand a new style and percistance and reasoning why you are doing it may help people understand. as a new style it would have being revolutional. now anythig goes in art and design however it once didint.
judd belived that work shoud be one thing after another, there would be no metaphor involved in the work and it would be made in a series, an example of this is the work below. this is laquer on
galvanised iron atatched to the wall in a series of work as the metal boxes go up the wall one by one. after judd's critiques, painting and sculptre should have come apart compleatly, this shows how conservative art and design really is.
judd then begins to play with the idea of colour, like a painter and how dan flavin did, he works with pink pexiglass and creates colour without using paint but an outside componant. again used from objects placed one after another in a series.
compared to what was being made at the same time, david smith's work with cubi XIX, is a wie comparison. the difference is more shapes that are joined up into a figure based shape, not individual pieces. They are welded into a composition. it makes you think abotu figure, form and shape. it's made of industrial steel but has hand finsihed surface it doesnt look like it was made in same time frame.
judd in 1991,made the sculpture below from painted aluminium, it was a piece shown in the tate modern. his work almost starts looking like modernist furniture, it becomes design not art. it's big, perculiar and beautiful.
judd then starts to make furniture intentionally with the suite of five chairs tipping into design practice, its like he could see it coming all along.
