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

This first edition softcover 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 tight, presentable copy. Cover has crease to back corner, very minor soiling, moderate wear along spine, and very faint fading to spine. Former owner's last name written in corner of title page in pen. A few other pages have underlined sentences or small notes in pencil. Rest of pages are clean and crisp. Very good condition.

"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 Other essays included in this publication are "Complaints I" (1969), "Complaints II" (1973) and his previously unpublished essay "Imperialism, Nationalism and Regionalism" (1975), all of which establish the polemical importance of Judd's writing."

8.5 x 11 inches