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I don’t even know where to begin with Marfa. When I started
heading to Miami for Art Basel in 2006 Elmgreen & Dragset had just
constructed the “Prada Marfa” and photographs of the installation have been at
almost every fair since then. It became a town that was totally hyped yet still
mysterious. In the desert of west Texas, three hours from El Paso and seven
from Austin, its remote location only added to the allure of the small town of
2,000 people that was home to “world-class” contemporary art. When we decided
to drive across the country from New York to Los Angeles, a stop in Marfa was a
must. With complete terror of rural America and driving through the middle of
nowhere with questionable cell phone reception, we made our way from Austin to
Marfa. About an hour outside of Austin, I had a complete meltdown of the wild
animals we might encounter, I emailed the only two people I knew who been
before. They both assured me they
had the best time without any reptile interference. As the landscaped
transitioned from wooded to pure desert and the mountains started to build up
my fears quickly transitioned to excitement.
We rented the most adorable apartment on Dean Street across
from Ballroom. It was a one bedroom with the perfect fenced-in patio. It was
the best location and we could walk almost anywhere downtown. We got in around
6pm and we’re sad to see that Pizza Foundation was closed for renovations.
Although, since then I found out the building was closed as Oklahoma City-based
City Arts Center (
http://cityartscenter.org/)
is investing money into the property with new exhibition and educational space.
We ended up at a restaurant that will remain nameless and definitely not
recommended. Expect to pay for mediocre food unless you go to Cochineal (
http://cochinealmarfa.com/), where we had
one of the top three dinners on our cross-country trip (only surpassed by Uchi
in Austin
http://www.uchiaustin.com/ and
tied with JCT Kitchen
http://www.jctkitchen.com/
in Atlanta). We only had one full day in town and it was packed with tours of
both the Chinati and Judd Foundations. I wish we stayed an extra day as there
was a lot we missed (seems to be the story of my life – never scheduling enough
time). But this only leaves the perfect reason to go back and book a flight to
El Paso (and no offense, but probably the only reason to go to El Paso).
We started the day at 11am at Chinati (
http://www.chinati.org/) for an abridged
tour of the collection – a two-hour tour. I wasn’t sure what to expect but was
totally blown away by the works in the collection. Although, I never love a
guided-tour as I always move faster than the average person, I dealt with it.
Since it was the abridged tour, we didn’t walk by Donald Judd’s exterior
sculpture “15 untitled works in concrete” but spent at least 30 minutes walking
through the two artillery sheds that housed “100 untitled works in mill
aluminum”. The works were beautiful,
true minimal works and although the repetition of the shapes at times was
mundane, the clean, shinny sculptures against the harsh desert landscape was
inspiring. The more time we spent on-property, the more those 15 concrete
sculptures were enticing me in the distance, probably because I knew we didn’t
have the time to walk down and around them as I only planned for one hour
between tours. From Judd’s aluminum works we wondered into old barracks to see
one Dan Flavin piece spread over six spaces. The works (all light
installations, Flavin’s most well-known medium) were genius in their response
to the space as well their play with natural light. We walked from one space to
another watching the shades and shadows of blue, pink, orange and yellow play
with one another. From there the small tour group caravanned into town where an
old mohair factory had been stripped down and converted to a large gallery for
John Chamberlain’s large works. Sadly,
the docent informed us of Chamberlain’s process in making the works. This
includes him and a slew of gallery assistants banging the shit out of used car
parts, boats and other discarded objects. It took all meaning out of the works.
Even if at the end all works can “stand on their own”, they all seemed less
special.
I can understand how you might not understand Judd’s work;
the precision and extreme minimalism that turns into true beauty for some can
easily be a box for most. And do to Judd’s medium, I am aware a lot of his work
is outsourced, but it is that unrelenting attention to detail and simplicity
not to mention the use of textures and materials that inspire me. And my new
perceived lack of this in Chamberlain’s work is disappointing. I’ll have to do
more research on the artist and the process; perhaps I am misinformed.
After our Chinati tour, we grabbed amazing, authentic
burritos from Marfa Burrito and rushed over to the Judd Foundation (
http://www.juddfoundation.org/marfa.htm),
a completely separate entity from Chinati. The first tour was of Judd’s architecture
works; as he become more wealthy, Judd invested in several great buildings in
downtown Marfa. On this tour, we saw a residence, a storage shed, an old
grocery store and an amazing bank dating from the 1930s. Judd took most of
these structures and stripped them down to their bare essentials. The grocery
store was nothing more than concrete floors, a ceiling with bare trusts and
cinderblock walls. The space was filled with high tables that were scattered
with several of the artist’s tools, books, works in progress, etc. While, no
works were made in the grocery store, it was a space the artists used as a
research labratory, a think-tank of sorts. It was a wonderful space, albeit a
bit dark due to just one wall of windows.
From there we toured a residence the artists had purchased
and completely gutted. There wasn’t much to see in this space and I am not sure
why it was included on the tour. The Foundation has installed in this space and
the neighboring storage shed early paintings by Judd that everyone on the tour
agreed were not the best works we’ve seen. However, it was great to see the
early works from an artist to inform how they ended up making concrete bat
caves in the middle of the desert. The “15 untitled concrete works” were home
to bats for many years until nests were made nearby.
The final and best stop was the bank. On the main street in
town, it was a beautiful building from the outside with mild deco features and
a prominence over the corner where it sat. Inside, the ground floor was
completely torn up- bare concrete walls, floors and ceilings were all that
remained. This space was a bit of a mess, but it was great to see a nearly
100-year old building completely stripped down. It was rare to see history in
such a one-of-a-kind way. Upstairs on the second floor was an architectural
studio – a collection of small rooms that contained the drawings and models
from multiple architectural projects Judd was working on at time of his death
in 1994. The place was very clean and honestly, really fun to explore but still
maintained a sense that it was unfinished.
Later in the day, we wondered over to the Block, the
residence Judd purchased that was originally home to one of the generals (or
someone very senior in the armed forces). You weren’t able to go into the home
where he lived, but we toured two artillery sheds that sat next to his
residence. The place was completely walled-in by a nine-foot wall. It
transported the space out of the desert and while it was an amazing space to be
in, it also made you forget that you were in this amazing rural landscape. Within
those sheds were his library and some gallery spaces that he used again for inspiration
but not for actually making art. In hindsight I am not sure if Judd make any
work in Marfa or just designed architectural and sculptural pieces. The true
inspiration came form an amazing breeze that rustled through the trees in this
very clean, minimal block with the blazing, setting desert sun.
Overall, it was great and very inspiring. The Chinati spaces
were the highlight of the day and I am sad we did not book more time to see
more of the town and other exhibits in town. But I am already talking about
heading back in October for the annual Open House weekend.
And of course, on our way out of town, en route to Albuquerque, we had to stop at the infamous Prada Marfa. It was further out of town than we had expected. Actually, it was past the next small town of Valentine. And after all the hype, it was god damn fantastic! The best parts that you never hear about are 1. the train tracks that are across the street that only add to the rural feel of the location and 2. the back of the installation has totally be tagged up but not crazy and you never see images of it (to come in a follow-up post). The worst part is the huge camera that is installed on the piece to deter vandals. It seems to be working as the piece has stayed in tact but it still takes something away, or maybe that camera says more about our society than I realized...
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