१२ ऑगस्ट, २०२२

"A poor town in an empty part of Texas. A famous artist with a prominent following comes to town, buys up old buildings and cheap land..."

"... and builds museums full of crushed cans and boxes, scattered over concrete floors, inside buildings that are forever 1984 like Michael Graves in formaldehyde. Money comes in, the wealthy, the celebrities. There are pilgrimages to visit empty glass sculptures resting inside overheated warehouses surrounded by dry, hot grasslands. The artist dies, filled with resentment and anger, but somehow leaving behind a legacy, with a lot of debt, which will someday turn into hundreds of millions and enrich foundations, museums, his progeny. And the silent objects (also called ART) wither and decay, much like the state and the nation that surrounds it, a place of guns, oil, fanatic politics, speculative housing and the worship of junk as meaningful art."


Somebody else says: "I say surrender it to the elements. I would love to visit when nature has won out. It's gorgeous desolate landscape and didn't need Judd's imposition."

१० टिप्पण्या:

madAsHell म्हणाले...

The Marfa Lights.

It gives the place an Area 51 vibe.

wayworn wanderer म्हणाले...

We've been there. I vote for "let nature take its course."

Heartless Aztec म्हणाले...

We drive US90 from Atlantic Bch Florida to San Diego, California. The hotel Paisano in Marfa is pretty cool if needlessly stuck up about itself due to the movie Giant being filmed there in the 1950's. Make dinner reservations the moment you book a room. Trust me on this. Also a south facing room over the courtyard for drinks as the sunsets. If you're lucky it might rain and then it's rainbows everywhere.
The town is quite often - for the most part - closed. The Judd/Chinati foundation is dull - at best. Of more interest was the WWIl German POW camp it's housed in.

Brian McKim and/or Traci Skene म्हणाले...

Just down the pike from Alpine, TX, which was, for many years, where H. Allen Smith resided.

Perhaps the area just attracted oddballs way before this gentleman.

Baceseras म्हणाले...

I haven't read the Times article (because paywall), but now I have to wonder why that commenter said Judd died "filled with resentment and anger." All I know is, decades ago Judd was dissatisfied with the New York museum-and-art-gallery setting for contemporary art. He was financially secure enough to leave it behind: moved to Texas, and for near 20 years worked and found contentment there. I'd be sorry if something turned him angry and resentful toward the end of his life.

I saved an article from a couple three years ago about Judd and the town of Marfa. Some quotes:

"Judd came to Marfa not just for the space but in search of authenticity. He was dissatisfied with the New York art world in which, he felt, tastemakers and curators divorced art from its power.

"To Judd, if an artist worked his piece in the studio or on a chosen plot of land, to remove it from that place and put it in a gallery or museum felt false. He hoped in Marfa to give primacy back to his creations.

"...It’s the austerity of the work that fixes it in the mind of its viewer.

"Although Judd would never describe it as minimalist, Marfa has become known for just this kind of work: large-scale, permanent, fixed and sometimes inscrutable...."

https://www.artistsnetwork.com/magazine/donald-judd/

(One more quote: "Judd organized his books not alphabetically or by subject but in order of their authors’ birth.") ;)

Ann Althouse म्हणाले...

"I haven't read the Times article (because paywall), but now I have to wonder why that commenter said Judd died "filled with resentment and anger.""

Here's what's in the article that may support the characterization:

"[Judd] wanted distance from the New York art world where he first made a name in the early 1960s as an art critic and then as a rigorously experimental sculptor.... Too often he felt that museums mishandled the installation and transport of these pieces, sometimes returning them with shipping labels stuck carelessly to the surface of his plywood boxes, mistaking them for containers of art rather than the art itself....

"When Dia [the foundation supporting the Texas project] pulled back on its substantial financial commitment, Judd threatened to sue for breach of contract and lawyers negotiated a settlement in which he gained possession of all the art, buildings and land. He never spoke again with Dan Flavin, who refused to sever ties with Dia. In 1986, Judd established the Chinati Foundation as a curatorial forum for permanent installations and temporary projects, a kind of anti-museum where the artist was paramount. Judd expressed his deep antipathy for museums and for the commodification of art — “conquered as soon as it’s made,” as he wrote in 1987. “The public has no idea of art other than that it is something portable that can be bought.”"

hugh42 म्हणाले...

Marfa is fun to see, old army barracks and concrete field sculptures as well as a refigured downtown with arty old gas stations. The weather is great, the presence of the Border Patrol is very striking -- seems to support the town economy and for a person coming from a long distance it seems a marvel. Donald Judd did the place a big favor by bringing New Yorkers. Maybe now they are tired of it. Times change.

Bob म्हणाले...

Americana singer Tift Merritt visited Marfa a dozen or so years ago and, with her artist's eye, made a fine music video using the town as background footage: Icarus.

West TX Intermediate Crude म्हणाले...

Marfa is worth a visit, for reasons discussed above. Midland has a small very nice airport to fly into. Also other "neighborhood" attractions including Big Bend National Park, McDonald Observatory (no burgers, just incomparable views of the heavens with excellent guided tours), and Ft. Davis. Sanderson, where "No Country for Old Men" was set, is also nearby, and really looks like that.

Mikey NTH म्हणाले...

"A Song to Celebrity" should be the name of the place. Without the celebrity of the artist who would come to this town to look at old cans scattered on the floor of a warehouse? The name was the product, not the ostensible product.

Is there a tag for tourist traps? Because this is one aimed at a particular type of tourist.