SOME/WHERE : 'THE DESOLATE WEST' THE CHINATI FOUNDATION MARFA, TEXAS
Between Highway 90 and the desolate West Texas borderlands of El Paso, is located a tiny town called Marfa. In the 1970's minimalist artist and sculptor Donald Judd became entranced by the beauty of the bleak nothingness of the West Texas landscape. He then decided to leave New York City to come to Marfa, where he would continue his works and create permanent installations that interact with the surrounding local landscape.
Rather than displaying his crisp minimal works in a traditional white gallery space, Judd was interested in working with the desert as his canvas. His first series, "15 Untitled Works in Concrete" is placed in an open landscape, organized in groups in a straight line across a field with each sculpture centric to the next. Judd brings attention to the beauty of the vast open terrain with the placement of these casted concrete monolithic structures, creating an instant interaction between utilitarian architecture and the natural space.
Walking through the Concrete works, the body becomes weightless as you lose a sense of space and time in the desolate field where the grand concrete structures have been delicately placed. A hidden Utopia, Donald Judd's Marfa creates an odd but beautiful disconnect between the epic empty landscape and human reality.
Donald Judd founded The Chinati Foundation in Marfa which currently houses the permanent collection of Judd's Concrete works, 100 untitled works in aluminum, as well as works by Dan Flavin and many more artists.
Photography by Sophie Loloi | S/TUDIO