"Four years ago almost all of the applauded and selling art was New York School painting. It was preponderant in most galleries, which were uninclined to show anything new. The publications which praised it praised it indiscriminately and were uninterested in new developments. Much of the painting was by the "second generation" many of them epigones. Pollock was dead. Kline and Brooks had painted their last good paintings in 1956 and 1957. Guston's paintings had become soft and gray — his best ones are those around 1954 and 1955. Motherwell's and De Kooning's paintings were somewhat vague. None of these artists were criticized. In 1959 Newman's work was all right, and Rothko's was even better than before. Presumably, though none were shown in New York, Clyfford Still's paintings were all right. This lackadaisical situation was thought perfect. The lesser lights and some of their admirers were incongruously dogmatic : this painting was not only doing well but was the only art for the time. They thought it was a style. By now, it is."
Quote Details
Added by wikiquote-import-bot
Unverified quote
0 likes
Original Language: English
Available Languages (1)
Sources
Donald Judd, in: Arts Yearbook. (1964) p. 23
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Donald_Judd
Revision History
No revisions have been submitted for this quote.
Categories
Donald Judd
Donald Clarence Judd (June 3, 1928 – February 12, 1994) was an American artist associated with minimalism.
35 quotes on TrueQuotesView all quotes by Donald Judd →
Related Quotes
"ARTS is a somewhat conservative magazine but it is not uniformly, simply or blindly conservative, and the several con…"
"Any combining, mixing, adding, diluting, exploiting, vulgarizing, or popularizing of abstract art deprives art of its…"
"The history of art and art’s condition at any time are pretty messy. They should stay that way. One can think about t…"
"Usually when someone says a thing is too simple they're saying that certain familiar things aren't there, and they're…"
"Everything sculpture has, my work doesn’t."
"I wanted work that didn't involve incredible assumptions about everything. I couldn't begin to think about the order …"
"The main virtue of geometric shapes is that they aren't organic, as all art otherwise is. A form that's neither geome…"
"I object to several popular ideas. I don't think anyone's work is reductive. The most the term can mean is that new w…"
"Obviously everyone is going to prefer kinds of art. I prefer art that isn't associated with anything and am tired of …"
"The main qualifications to the lesser position of painting is that advances in art are certainly not always formal ones."