Professional Circle Tour Features Exclusive Look at Donald Judd Building
The latest Professional Circle tour gave members an exclusive look at noted artist Donald Judd’s former SoHo home and studio before it undergoes a major three-year restoration.
Considered the birthplace of “permanent installation,” 101 Spring Street is not only a hallmark of contemporary art, it is one of the only intact, single-use cast-iron buildings remaining in SoHo. This distinction has earned it the highest designation for national significance as part of the SoHo Historic Cast-Iron District.
In 1968 the visionary sculptor pooled his resources together to purchase the five-story building designed by Nicholas Whyte in 1870. It was the first building he had ever owned and its subsequent design—along with Judd’s work as an artist and art critic—made him an integral part of the artist experience in the SoHo of the ‘60s and ‘70s.
“Too often, I believe, the meaning of a work of art is lost as a result of a thoughtless or unsuitable placement of the work for display. The installation of my own work, for example, as well as that of others, is contemporary with its creation, and the space surrounding the work is crucial to it. Frequently as much thought has gone into the placement of a piece as into the piece itself,” Judd wrote.
The works on view during the tour remain as Judd placed them prior to his death in 1994. Judd permanently installed his own works and those of Dan Flavin, Lucas Samaras, Ad Reinhardt, Frank Stella, John Chamberlain, Carl Andre, David Novros, Claes Oldenburg and Marcel Duchamp, among others.
The Donald Judd Foundation has been working for many years to maintain and preserve the artist’s vision of permanently installed living and working spaces, libraries, and archives. One of the great challenges the foundation faces is keeping Judd’s carefully designed aesthetic while making the building suitable for tours and regular visits.
This endeavor means installing safety precautions, such as exit signs and sprinkler systems, throughout the building. Judd’s vision not only included the placement of work in carefully crafted areas throughout all five floors but also the basic structure of the building itself. To install building safety devices would be to compromise the artist’s vision.
This great challenge lay before the foundation’s three-year restoration effort. The space will soon be converted to the Donald Judd House and Studio, a museum and offices of the Donald Judd Foundation.
In Judd’s essay “101 Spring Street,” he wrote, “I spent a great deal of time placing the art and a great deal designing the renovation in accordance. Everything from the first was intended to be thoroughly considered and to be permanent.”
Circle members experienced first hand Judd’s attention to spatial relationships and the placement of art within the building.
The tour began on the first floor, originally Judd’s studio. A stately roll-top office desk rested in the center of the room—one of the many items that were abandoned when Judd purchased the building. Large windows shaded by exterior scaffolding characterize each floor, adding to the gray of the cloudy day. Leaving the first floor, members took a charming 1898-roped elevator to the fifth floor.
Judd designed the top floor of the building to be the master bedroom. An impressive Dan Flavin work of beaming red lights constructed to fit the length of the longest wall greets all that enter the space. It is one of the only rooms where he constructed interior walls to create closets and small private living spaces. Artwork Judd loved and appreciated fills the room, such as a 1961 piece of old automobile parts by sculptor John Chamberlain and early three-dimensional Judd paintings. A Judd-designed bed centers the room.
Traveling down wooden staircases the artist stripped of railings, members entered the formal dining floor and parlor. The room is filled with artwork, including 1964 drawings by Dan Flavin and a grand Frank Stella painting. The fourth floor will require major window restoration as well as reinstalling sprinkler systems, which Judd had torn out long ago. Shades will be put in and drawn when the building is not in use on all floors to protect the art from sunlight.
Judd moved his studio from the ground floor to the third floor in his second year of occupancy to seek greater privacy. Described as more of a place for Judd to think and design rather than construct his artwork, Judd’s studio features gypsum plaster walls and ceiling with oil-colored stains of unknown origin. Alvar Aalto furniture and a colossal drawing table rest atop a Judd-designed “levitating” floor—a one-inch gap separates the floor from wall to create the illusion that the floor is floating. The library, now a curious nook, is nearly empty since the artist moved his thirteen thousand books to his studio in Marfa, Texas.
Judd dedicated the second floor of the building to eating, cooking, bathing and informal entertaining. Most frequented by guests, the space is equipped with a large kitchen, loft bed space, dining area and bath. Exposed pipes and cookware from all over the globe characterize the kitchen section. A striking red painting by David Novros hangs near the dining room table and a massive wall painting by the then young artist Ad Reinhart dominates the south section of the spacious room. Judd even built a puppet theater for his children, which is concealed in the wooden wall under the staircase.
Join us on our next Professional Circle Tour, March 9
Robert Levine of RAL Companies, a Chairman’s Award recipient will lead Professional Circle members on a tour of One Brooklyn Bridge Park, a former warehouse building which has been converted to luxury apartments. The building, which is part of a renaissance on the Brooklyn waterfront, features sweeping views of Brooklyn Bridge and the Manhattan skyline.
Contact Amy Sullivan at 212.995.5260 or to reserve a space
