Marfa (pop. 1,725) is a located in the southwest corner of Texas, not too far from Big Bend. For a while, it’s greatest claim to fame was that it was the location of the film Giant. In 1971, however, Marfa became the home of Donald Judd, a painter, sculptor, and essayist who pioneered the Minimalist school. He began fabricating large sculptures that were representative of nothing; in effect, they existed for their own sake. He worked in wood, metal, and enamel; he also designed furniture and buildings which were functional but minimal and sleek. Over time, he purchased a number of buildings in downtown Marfa to use as studios.
In 1979, he purchased a decommissioned airbase just outside of Marfa and created the Chinati Foundation to showcase his work and that of his contemporaries. (Chinati is the name of a nearby mountain range.) The Foundation’s ethos—Judd imposed a very strong aesthetic concept on the organization—was the union of art, architecture, and environment.
Click on the photos to enlarge them.
The main building contains 100 fabricated steel boxes, each with a unique arrangement of interior and exterior panels.
Three U-shaped former barracks (shown in the last photo, above) contain light sculptures by the artist Dan Flavin, in which the bottom of each U is bisected centrally by a hallway and laterally, in the first building, by an arrangement of green and pink fluorescent tubes; in the second, by an arrangement of blue and yellow fluorescent tubes; and, in the third, an arrangement of both sets of fluorescent tubes. The buildings themselves are works of minimal art.
A former dining hall still contains the artwork of an unknown airman/cartoonist.
A quick stop for lunch: the best burrito I have ever eaten.
Back to Chinati: another U-shaped building contains a more recent installation, Robert Irwin’s Dusk to Dawn, in which one walks from one end of the U to the other down hallways that are bisected by scrim sheets. (Click on the photos and scroll through them for the experience.)
Finally, outside: some of Donald Judd’s concrete box fabrications.
Next: the Marfa lights.