opened in may 2003, the louisa guinness gallery brings to london
the novel opportunity to purchase furniture and other
functional objects made by contemporary artists,
the gallery is situated in a sixth floor flat above sloane avenue.
donald judd furniture made to order
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donald judd (1928-1994)
american sculptor and writer on art. born in excelsior springs, missouri.
first one-man exhibition at the panoras gallery, new york, 1957.
1959-65 a contributing editor to arts magazine and reviewer for
art news and art international. began as a painter, his paintings
developing in the early 1960s into low-reliefs, then into high-reliefs
and free-standing works.
made wall pieces and floor pieces with precise geometrical forms
and without a base. he began to have his pieces fabricated from his
designs in metal and sometimes coloured perspex. lived in new york.
began making furniture in 1973, when he moved from to marfa, in texas.
the reason was practical, as he couldn’t find anything suitable locally –
the first pieces he executed were beds for his children.
the early furniture was executed with plain planks of pine.
‘I figured it out so I could tell the lumberyard what I wanted –
four pieces, five feet long, three pieces, two feet long –
and they would cut them for me. they wouldn’t do too many and
they wouldn’t do anything fancy.
they would just chop it up. for a long time the basic module was the
width of the wood: 1x12s, 2x12s. for some racket of the lumberyards,
the twelve inches were really eleven inches.
most of the new work is in metric measurement.'said donal judd.
later he worked in sheet metal. the wooden pieces are all still made
by one fabricator who worked with judd and made the furniture to
his specification.
the metal is made of aluminium with a choice of 20 different
coloured enamels. some pieces also come in copper which is
particularly spectacular.
judd was very insistent that his furniture should not be seen as artist’s
furniture but as real furniture.
‘I’m very touchy about it being considered art. to me the chairs and
benches are perfectly comfortable, not hard and uncomfortable as
people sometimes seem to think they are.
I have nineteenth-century wooden chairs from sweden and I’ve sat on
them for years.
I think the thing to do is to either sit up or lie down or stand up:
I’m not sympathetic to in-between positions.i
judd said.
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donald judd chairs
donald judd desk set
donald judd copper shelf
donald judd giant table |
