Featured in Art & Piece
Donald Judd solo exhibition at Thaddaeus Ropac gallery in Seoul
4 September 2023
Seoul Fort Hill
Thaddaeus Ropac Seoul Space will hold Donald Judd’s first solo exhibition in South Korea in nearly ten years. Curated by Flavin Judd, artistic director of the Judd Foundation, the exhibition will display the American artist’s works spanning more than 30 years from the early 1960s to the early 1990s.
The exhibition also presents the artist's early paintings and some three-dimensional works, as well as a set of 20 woodcut prints. These prints were conceived by Judd when he was in South Korea in 1991 and will be exhibited in China for the first time.
Donald Judd played an important role in shaping the art world in the second half of the 20th century, establishing a new three-dimensional visual language and laying the foundation for a new understanding of the art object. He abandons narrative and symbolism and strives to present the formal properties of the work itself through what he considers the three most important aspects - material, space and color. The artist initially engaged in traditional painting, but later gave up on expressive forms because he realized that the most "real" art he could create was not to depict things that did not exist, but to emphasize what already existed. In the paintings on display, lines and fields extend to the edges of the canvas, embracing it as part of the work: for Judd, this is about acknowledging the form and spatiality of the supports, both of which are an important part of the work.
This exhibition reviews the artist's career spanning more than three decades, allowing the audience to gain an in-depth understanding of his extensive artistic practice and appreciate his works through different forms and media. The exhibition brings together a selection of works to distill the sense of solidity, space and reality that are at the heart of the artist's practice.
Donald Judd
Curated by Flavin Judd
Exhibition period: 4 September to 20 October
Address: Thaddaeus Ropac Seoul Fortress Hill
