Neil Levine Reassesses Donald Judd in New Yale University Press Study

Neil Levine, an art and architectural historian, argues that Donald Judd's (1928-94) found objects carry more weight than scholars have granted. His book The Sculpture of Donald Judd, published by Yale University Press at 180 pages ($40/£30), offers the first chronological account of Judd's shift from painting to three-dimensional work. Levine contends that Judd's own essays, including the often-cited Specific Objects, are opaque and should not be treated as a key to the objects; he separates what artists write from what they make. The MoMA-held Untitled (1961), a black painting with a baking tin inset, anchors his claim that Judd's practice is concrete rather than abstract, and critical of modern life's abstraction. Levine first encountered Judd's To Susan Buckwalter, projecting wall-mounted volumes, at Green Gallery in spring 1965 while reviewing for Artnews; the sculpture, which now graces the book's cover, so unnerved him that he never filed the review. The two were friends from roughly 1965 to 1975, until a falling out during a trip to France that year ended their contact.