Gagosian

Since its creation in 1970, the piece has only been exhibited five times before, and only twice in its original U-shaped configuration of galvanized iron panels. In line with Unlimited’s focus on championing monumental and trailblazing projects, this important work also marks Judd’s development of immersive, architecturally scaled works that produce an equally visceral and intellectual experience for the viewer.

At Art Basel Unlimited, the work is installed nearly identically to how it was shown in the 1970 Leo Castelli show; six panels appear on opposing walls, with five running continuously between these sides. This U-shaped configuration offers a striking symmetry, as viewers can be immersed in the piece to greater or lesser degrees of engagement. The nuances of the material—hot-dipped galvanized iron fabricated by the Bernstein Brothers Sheet Metal Specialties—demonstrate infinite variance; the work shimmers as one moves through the space, captivating the eye and inviting closer reflection. While certainly Judd disavowed the presence of his artistic “hand,” the complexities of the material created through the industrial process of galvanization results in a gorgeously multifaceted surface composed of individual zinc crystals, which has notably been described as “electrochemically replicat[ing] Pollock’s biomechanical process.”

This work has an extraordinary exhibition history, one that contributes to the piece’s historical significance. Following the Castelli show, it was included in Judd’s noteworthy solo exhibition at the Pasadena Art Museum in May of the following year. Here, it was necessary to modify the number of panels from those used previously due to the respective spatial differences and the introduction of a curved wall at the museum. The work was ultimately installed in Pasadena as fourteen panels set in a straight line, while maintaining the eight-inch projection. The number of available panels to be used, as well as the possibilities for certain modifications to the panels in order to accomodate spatial considerations, communicates the potential for variability in the work’s installation on both practical and conceptual levels. The work was not exhibited again until 1988, when it was prominently included in the artist’s major survey exhibition at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York featuring another straight-line configuration.

While the straight-line installation offers an opportunity to place the work along a single wall, using the outmost spatial corners as points of demarcation, the U-shaped installation provides an elegant sense of compositional order that heightens the work’s key features. The continuation of the piece as it wraps onto adjacent walls emphasizes the material’s reflective sheen, as light bounces between nearby panels and creates an immersive effect. David Raskin has referred to works like this as “constructions of place,” and the work undeniably heightens the viewer’s attention to their surroundings. The scale of the piece, reaching precisely five feet in height, allows for the observation of the work’s projection from the wall from over the top of the panels, while the work’s lateral edges are flush with the wall. This creates a fascinating juxtaposition between visual penetration and impermeability, one that is the essence of volumetric considerations of space.

Judd’s interest in creating a work that engages architectural space can be contextualized within both recent personal and art historical events that occurred around 1970. In late 1969, Judd moved with his young family into 101 Spring Street in New York’s SoHo neighborhood, where he maintained a residence and studio for the rest of his life. This shift in location corresponded with a greater emphasis on spatial environments found in Judd’s work; he began making pieces that incorporated the surrounding architecture in which a given piece is installed—a concept that would be further explored in the present work.

Regarding the U-shaped installation of the work at Art Basel Unlimited, Judd’s emphasis on three visual planes might also connect to the artist’s earlier creation of his first-ever wraparound stack (DSS 187) in 1969, which featured green plexiglass on each unit’s front and side panels, adopting a similar structure. While Judd had created works that considered the environment to determine the number of units and the installation format as early as 1966, the present work was one of his first creations that could span multiple walls, indicating an increased focus on spatial environments that exceeded the artist’s previous output. This level of scale and form became a later preoccupation for Judd, appearing in a 1974 installation at the Portland Center for the Visual Arts in Oregon, as well as in the prominent inner U-shaped adobe wall at the Block in Marfa, Texas.

Just as this work features a U-shaped configuration of panels set away from the surrounding walls of the exhibition space, so, too, was the U-shaped inner wall at Marfa enclosed by a perimeter wall by Judd in 1985. In writing about this addition, Judd states: “The two walls and two areas, one sloped and the other level, make a work, I suppose, both art and architecture, although usually the distinction is important.” Certainly, in the present work seen at Art Basel Unlimited, this distinction is paramount—in many ways encapsulating the very essence of art’s ability to transform lived experience and indeed, the world around us.