The seed that didn’t take - and the starkest divergence in the garden. RM didn’t glance at Judd; he loved him out loud (“In Judd we trust”). I’ve stood in the same kind of rooms and felt nothing. Logged not as a love but as a boundary - where his eye and mine part most cleanly.
Provenance - where he pointed
Pointed at by Namjoon.
- RM’s @rkive Instagram, December 2021 - a series from the Chinati Foundation, Marfa, TX, on his US art tour after the LA PTD shows. Captioned “In Judd we trust” (Judd by name) and “Light and Space.” He shot Judd’s own permanent works: sat inside The Arena, posted the untitled mill-aluminum pieces in the artillery sheds, calling out the light through Judd’s window walls.
- @rkive IG, Dec 2021. Later echo: the Donald Judd: Furniture book on the coffee table in the 260303 story (same frame as What Are You Looking At) - the interest still there four years on.
Why it didn’t bloom - the door
Judd and Lee Ufan both put the object first - why does one move me and the other doesn’t? Judd’s object is closed, finished, hard-edged; Lee Ufan’s is open, relational, contingent. Maybe it’s the relation I want, not the object.
Grows into
- (nothing - it didn’t grow. The value is the contrast, not a tributary.)
Related seeds
- Lee Ufan - the foil. Same move (object first), opposite result in me. The difference sharpens 留白 and Mono-ha by negative space.
- Yun Hyong-keun - Chinati shows Yun in the same desert (featured 2021, alongside Flavin). Same ground as Judd, opposite bloom - a love waiting in Marfa if I ever go. (confirm whether the Yun is permanent.)
- What Are You Looking At - the 260303 story where the Judd furniture book reappears.