Aquatint on paper
Tate Collection
Works with images
General Collection
Collection
Untitled
<a href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/donald-judd-1378" aria-label="More by Donald Judd" data-gtm-name="header_link_artist" data-gtm-destination="page--artist">Donald Judd</a>
Purchased 1981
abstraction
geometric
monochromatic
non-representational
paper print aquatint
[no title]
image: 508 × 635 mm
Purchased 1981
<p><b>P07560</b> [from] UNTITLED 1980 [<a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/judd-no-title-p07555" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>P07555</span></a>–<a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/judd-no-title-p07560" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>P07560</span></a>]
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<br/>Each inscribed ‘Judd’ bottom right and ‘2/ 150’
<br/>Six aquatints, printed at Styria Studio, New York, published by J&amp;D Fine Arts, New York, each approx 20×25 (50.8× 63.5)
<br/>Purchased from Schellmann &amp; Klüser (Grant-in-Aid) 1981
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<br/>The six images [<span>P07555</span>-<span>P07560</span>] relate closely to Judd's parallelogram <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/p/print" title="Glossary definition for 'Print'"><span>prints</span></a> (1969) and to his four untitled <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/w/woodcut" title="Glossary definition for 'Woodcut'"><span>woodcuts</span></a> printed in red (1980). The present <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/p/portfolio" title="Glossary definition for 'Portfolio'"><span>portfolio</span></a> consists of a series of images where horizontal white bands are precisely masked out of an <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/e/etching" title="Glossary definition for 'Etching'"><span>etched</span></a> <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/a/aquatint" title="Glossary definition for 'Aquatint'"><span>aquatint</span></a> ground. The configuration of the bands is different in each print. The portfolio explores the nature of the difference between closed and open-ended line. Bands which terminate at the margin subvert the defined nature of the black ground extending the image beyond its edge and allowing the lines to float in space. Those which terminate within the ground emphasise its clearly defined edges. In 1965 Judd wrote: ‘The main thing wrong with <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/p/painting" title="Glossary definition for 'Painting'"><span>painting</span></a> is that it is a rectangular <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/p/plane" title="Glossary definition for 'Plane'"><span>plane</span></a> placed flat against the wall. A rectangle is a shape itself; it is obviously the whole shape; it determines and limits the arrangement of whatever is on or inside of it. In works before 1946 the edges of the rectangle are a boundary, the end of the picture. The <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/c/composition" title="Glossary definition for 'Composition'"><span>composition</span></a> must react to the edges and the rectangle must be unified, but the shape of the rectangle is not stressed; the parts are more important, and the relationship of colour and <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/f/form" title="Glossary definition for 'Form'"><span>form</span></a> occur among them. In the paintings of Pollock, Rothko, Still and Newman, and more recently of Reinhardt and Noland, the rectangle is emphasised. The elements inside the rectangle are broad and simple and correspond closely to the rectangle. The shapes and surface are only those which can occur plausibly and on a rectangular plane. The parts are few and so subordinate to the unity as not to be parts in an ordinary sense. A painting is nearly an entity, one thing, and not the indefinable sum of a group of entities and references.’ (‘Specific Objects’, Arts Yearbook 1965 quoted in exh. catalogue Don Judd, Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven and Whitechapel Art Gallery, London 1970, n.p.). In the present etchings the totality of the work may only be apprehended by viewing the whole portfolio. Judd thereby ensures that neither the rectangularity of the aquatint ground nor the linear image is predominant as might be the case when viewing each image in isolation.
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<br/>By restricting the <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/t/tone" title="Glossary definition for 'Tone'"><span>tonal</span></a> variation to one colour (black) and by masking out the design elements, Judd emphasises the flatness of the image, for margins and the motif are in the same plane and tone. The aquatint, which in all other respects acts as a ground, is paradoxically, therefore, the only printed area. The coarse application of the aquatint, which allows a speckled penetration by the <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/p/paper" title="Glossary definition for 'Paper'"><span>paper</span></a> tone, further emphasises this flatness.
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<br/><b>Published in:</b>
<br/><i>The Tate Gallery 1980-82: Illustrated Catalogue of Acquisitions</i>, London 1984
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<br/></p>

Catalogue entry
2004-10-11T00:00:00
catalogue-entry
CATALOGUE_ENTRY
abstraction geometric monochromatic non-representational