Chinati Foundation Releases Previously Unseen Footage of Construction of Donald Judd’s Monumental Concrete Boxes

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The Chinati Foundation in Marfa today shared 25-minutes of film footage made around 1984, showing the construction of Donald Judd’s 15 untitled works in concrete.

The footage, which was recently discovered in the Chinati’s archive, has never previously been shared with the public. The film is silent, with no sound or voice track.

Cast and assembled on site over a four-year period, the 15 untitled works in concrete each measure 2.5 x 2.5 x 5 meters, and are made from concrete slabs that are each 25 centimeters thick. They were the first to be installed at the Chinati Foundation, the 340-acre former Fort D.A. Russell that Judd bought in the 1970s and transformed into a museum for permanent large-scale installations by a limited number of artists.

The Chinati also shared its most recent annual newsletter, from 2019, that features an oral history with Jamie Dearing, Judd’s assistant during that period of time: chinati.org/pdf/newsletter24.pdf

Fabrication of Donald Judd’s untitled Freestanding Works in Concrete 1980 – 1984 from Chinati Foundation on Vimeo.

Like many cultural institutions, the Chinati Foundation is closed until further notice because of the coronavirus pandemic.

Jeanne Claire van Ryzin
Jeanne Claire van Ryzinhttps://sightlinesmag.org
An award-winning arts journalist, Jeanne Claire van Ryzin is the founder and editor-in-chief of Sightlines.

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