Marfa, Texas

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...