Working Papers/ Donald Judd Drawings, 1963-93
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The work of Donald Judd changed the course of sculpture in the 20th Century. As the first exhibition in Scotland to study Judd’s studio methods, 'Working Papers' focuses upon the instructional drawings Judd and his fabricators created.
In order to explore the limitations of 3-dimensional space, which Judd considered to be the most important development in art, it was necessary to clear away some of the conventions of sculpture and painting. The bare, minimal forms Judd produced were an attempt to avoid any form of illusionism, traditional materials and even the role of the artist and the studio.
Displayed in the Georgian Gallery in three distinct groups, the drawings include private studio drawings related to the fewer than 20 sculptures Judd made himself between 1962 and 1964, fabricators drawings from 1964 and a third type mostly from the 1970’s that are formal ‘portrait’ drawings made by Judd from his sculptures, often long after the works had been made.
Supported by Year of Creative Scotland 2012.
Exhibition Guide
Published on the occasion of 'Working Papers/ Donald Judd Drawings, 1963-93' at Talbot Rice Gallery, The University of Edinburgh.
Texts are available to view below or download.
Donald Judd (1928-1994), born in Missouri, served in the army as an engineer before going on to study philosophy and art history. He worked as a critic and through his writing and work in the 1960s he redefined the course of sculpture in the 20th Century. As the first exhibition in Scotland to focus on Judd’s studio methods, Working Papers includes the instructional drawings he and his fabricators created. Displayed in the Georgian Gallery in three distinct groups, the drawings include private studio drawings related to the fewer than 20 sculptures he made himself between 1962 and 1964, fabricators drawings from 1964 onwards and a third type mostly from the 1970s that are formal ‘portrait’ drawings made by Judd from his sculptures, often long after the works had been made.
Donald Judd had a keen interest in Scotland and particularly Edinburgh of the Enlightenment, home of David Hume. The Scottish philosopher was a resolute empiricist sceptical of ‘abstract thought’. Providing an example in his famous Treatise of Human Nature (1739-40) Hume argued that presented with a globe of white marble we are unable to separate and distinguish form and colour. “A person”, he wrote, “who desires us to consider the figure of a globe of white marble without thinking on its colour, desire an impossibility.” Judd, following Hume, would effectively strive for his work to be understood in its totality, all sense data informing our experience of the work, rather than it being supplanted by received ideas. Writing his famous essay Specific Objects in 1965 he recognised this philosophical position in what he felt was the most important new artwork being made. This artwork would have a profound effect on sculpture in the 20th Century, while Judd would continue to explore three-dimensional space, typically avoiding reductive categories such as Minimalism.
“Anyone who knew Judd at all well anytime after about 1970, personally or even on film, will find it hard to believe that this is his first exhibition anywhere in Scotland. It's an understatement to say that his connection with parts of Scotland's traditional culture and temperament were strong and constant, an attraction based on more than the usual ancestral reasons (he said that as far as he knew there were none — 'unfortunately'), but to that extent it was a deeper connection, more like a love affair, freely entered into, than something assumed or inherited.”
Peter Ballantine, curator of the exhibition
