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June 2006
The Weight of Sunlight
A Swiss architect studies the works of the artist who reshaped Marfa
Written by Cory Chandler
The weight of sunlight in Marfa is immense. It isn’t hot exactly—there’s just so much of it.
The flat palm of the sky adds a physical weight to an otherwise Spartan landscape, pressing down on blasted stucco and illuminating fields of parched grass that stretch to the distant mountains.
No wonder Donald Judd saw promise here as he combed the Southwest seeking a home for his works far from the bustle of New York’s art scene.
The Value of Space
Donald Judd’s work is based on the mingling of light and space. The final form of his pieces varies depending on the way light and shadow flow through and around them. This concept is probably most evident in Marfa. Here his pieces aren’t forced to jostle for space on a gallery floor; Judd turned Marfa into his gallery.
Donald Judd, a pioneer of the American Minimalist movement, was born in 1928, in Excelsior Springs, Mo. His work has been exhibited all over the world and is in the permanent collections of such museums as the Guggenheim and Smithsonian.
Judd and other minimalist artists sought to strip objects down to their basic geometric forms. They presented these works impersonally, defying the modern museum concept in which renowned architects design grandiose structures with little consideration for the art housed inside.
“People often underestimate the value of space,” says Urs Peter Flueckiger, an associate professor in Texas Tech’s College of Architecture.
He has spent years documenting Judd’s work in Marfa. “The mistake of architects is that they fail to understand the viewpoint of an artist. Judd was different. He understood the viewpoint of an architect just as well as the viewpoint of someone who works in two dimensions. He understood how to place a piece of artwork.”
An Irresistible Draw
Flueckiger was immediately drawn to Judd’s work when he encountered it while living in Switzerland, his home country.
After he moved to the United States, Marfa’s siren song was strong enough to draw him to West Texas and Texas Tech, where he has almost unobstructed access to Judd’s largest and most pristine collection.
Lonesome Highways
Over the last seven years Flueckiger traveled the winding, lonesome highways connecting Lubbock and Marfa. He’s made countless trips, often accompanied by students, to painstakingly draw the buildings Judd purchased and converted there.
These drawings—more than 100 to date— explain the larger context of Judd’s modified buildings for the first time. They show the deliberate design choices he made as he determined how his works would be viewed in Marfa. They also record those buildings in minute detail, preserving them for the future in case something should damage or destroy the structures themselves.
Flueckiger contends that even though Judd was never a registered architect, the concepts of architecture weighed heavily into his designs.
By documenting Judd’s works, Flueckiger’s students are exposed to Marfa and to the influence he had on it. They see firsthand how the artist transformed and revived the community.
A Town, A Legacy
Flueckiger is also interested in the imprint the artist left on Marfa’s social culture. Judd’s bold initiative to weave art and architecture through a small rural community can provide valuable lessons to architecture, interior design and landscape architecture students, Flueckiger believes.
Featured expert
Urs Peter Flueckiger is an associate professor of in Texas Tech’s College of Architecture. His Lubbock home, designed and built in Judd's minimalist style, was featured in the New York Times.
Flueckiger’s drawings of Judd’s buildings have been collected into a book, “Donald Judd Architecture Architektur Marfa Texas,” due for publication this fall. The project and book were made possible by support from the Helen Jones Foundation.
Related
Helen Jones Foundation
Helen DeVitt Jones was an active philanthropist and donated much of her wealth to the fine arts, culture and education. Her contributions to Texas Tech University helped to fund major aspects of the university. She died in September of 1997.
An Inventory of her papers, 1944-1995 and undated, is part of the Texas Tech's Southwest Collections Library.
See the Helen DeVitt Jones Auditorium and Sculpture Court
The Helen DeVitt Jones Courtyard, located on the North side of the College of Education building, is a part of a beautifully landscaped central courtyard, complete with seating, lighting, and a marble fountain sculptured in Italy.
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