Donald Judd Drawings

Working Papers: Donald Judd Drawings 1963-1993 will display 33 drawings linked to 3D objects Judd made after 1964. It was then that Judd, an Expressionist painter until the 1940s, became preoccupied with forms. He rejected symbolic expression and focused on the shape and volume of objects, rather than the ideas behind them.

The earliest drawings in the exhibition show Judd working out sculptural ideas he would go on to make, and the exhibition will also include previously unavailable fabricators’ shop drawings. Interestingly, the largest drawings on display resemble ‘portraiture’, as Judd made them after he had crafted the objects.

The drawings offer a rare opportunity to see Judd’s ‘hand’ and signature, both otherwise absent from the objects to show his dismissal of symbolic expression.

By using industrial materials for his objects – aluminium, iron, copper, Plexiglas and plywood – Judd aimed to emphasise the rationality of the Industrial Age, with his clear and well-defined works highlighting the purity of industrial colour, material and form.

Working Papers: Donald Judd Drawings 1963-1993 will run from 13 January-18 February  atSprüth Magers London, 7A Grafton Street, London, W1S