DONALD JUDD | Complete Writings 1959-1975 - 1st edition hardcover

This first edition hardcover is a rare artifact of Judd's artistic and cultural philosophy. 

The full title is comprehensive and fearless : "Donald Judd : Complete Writings 1959 - 1975, Gallery Reviews, Book Reviews, Articles, Letters to the Editor, Reports, Statements, Complaints" 

Like the reductive geometries of Judd's own seminal works, the anthology distills the philosophical source code underlying his revolutionary artistic practice. The pioneering sculptor's incisive polemics, notes, and essays merge into a profoundly clarifying stream, purging decades of expressionistic excess and romantic grandeur from the definition of Art.   Bask in Judd's vision of a radical atheistic grace where the artwork is liberated from metaphor's prison, allowed to exist phenomenologically as a "simple expression of the essence of substance." 

A beautifully preserved and collectible copy with very minor imperfections.  Dent to top edge of front board and dust jacket. One page spread has a printing error of small spots of ink (see photo). Very minimal toning and mark at spine of dust jacket.   Fine book in near fine jacket.  Fine condition overall.

"This first collection of Donald Judd's writings is a classic. Working as an art critic for the magazines Arts, Arts Magazine and, later, Art International, Judd regularly contributed reviews of contemporary art exhibitions between 1959 and 1965, but continued to write throughout his life on a broad range of subjects. In his reviews and essays, Judd discussed in detail the work of more than 500 artists showing in New York in the early and mid-1960s, and provided a critical account of this significant era of art in America. While addressing the social and political ramifications of art production, the writings frequently addressed the work of such artists as Jackson Pollock, Kazimir Malevich, Barnett Newman, Ad Reinhardt, Lee Bontecou, Yayoi Kusama, John Chamberlain, Dan Flavin, Kenneth Noland and Claes Oldenburg. Judd's essay "Specific Objects," first published in 1965, remains central to the analysis of the new art developed in the early 1960s. Other essays included in this publication are "Complaints I" (1969), "Complaints II" (1973) and his previously unpublished essay "Imperialism, Nationalism and Regionalism" (1975), all of which establish the polemical importance of Judd's writing."