Chinati Foundation
Encyclopedia
The Chinati Foundation/La Fundación Chinati is a contemporary art museum located in Marfa, Texas
and based upon the ideas of its founder, artist Donald Judd
.
Donald Judd
first visited Marfa, TX, in 1971, and moved himself from New York to Marfa as a full-time resident in 1977. Construction and installation at the site began in 1979 with initial assistance from the Dia Art Foundation
in New York. The Chinati Foundation opened to the public in 1986 as an independent, non-profit, publicly funded institution.
Chinati was originally conceived to exhibit the work of Donald Judd
, John Chamberlain and Dan Flavin
. However, the idea of the foundation developed further and its collection was enriched over years, and now the collection has expanded to include Carl Andre
, Ingólfur Arnarsson, Roni Horn
, Ilya Kabakov
, Richard Long
, Claes Oldenburg
and Coosje van Bruggen
, David Rabinowitch, and John Wesley
. Each artist's work is installed in a separate building on the museum's grounds. Temporary exhibitions feature modern and contemporary art of diverse media. The latest temporary exhibition is work by Hiroshi Sugimoto, which is on view until July, 2012.
It was Judd’s goal at Chinati to bring art, architecture, and nature together in order to form a coherent whole.
Marianne Stockebrand served as the foundation's director from 1994 through 2010. Since 2011, Thomas Kellein assumed the role of director. In 2002, Kellein curated of an exhibition of Donald Judd's works, while as director of Kunsthalle Bielefeld
in Germany.
The closest airports to Marfa are in El Paso and Midland/Odessa. It is about 3-hour drive from either airport.
Marfa, Texas
Marfa is a town in the high desert of far West Texas in the Southwestern United States. Located between the Davis Mountains and Big Bend National Park, it is also the county seat of Presidio County. The population was 1,981 at the 2010 census....
and based upon the ideas of its founder, artist Donald Judd
Donald Judd
Donald Clarence Judd was an American artist associated with minimalism . In his work, Judd sought autonomy and clarity for the constructed object and the space created by it, ultimately achieving a rigorously democratic presentation without compositional hierarchy...
.
Mission
The specific intention of Chinati is to preserve and present to the public permanent large-scale installations by a limited number of artists. The emphasis is on works in which art and the surrounding landscape are inextricably linked. Judd wrote in the foundation's first catalogue from 1987:"It takes a great deal of time and thought to install work carefully. This should not always be thrown away. Most art is fragile and some should be placed and never moved again. Somewhere a portion of contemporary art has to exist as an example of what the art and its context were meant to be. Somewhere, just as the platinum iridium meter guarantees the tape measure, a strict measure must exist for the art of this time and place."
History
The Chinati Foundation is located on 340 acres (1.4 km²) of land on the site of former Fort D.A. Russell in Marfa, Texas and some buildings in the town's center.Donald Judd
Donald Clarence Judd was an American artist associated with minimalism . In his work, Judd sought autonomy and clarity for the constructed object and the space created by it, ultimately achieving a rigorously democratic presentation without compositional hierarchy...
first visited Marfa, TX, in 1971, and moved himself from New York to Marfa as a full-time resident in 1977. Construction and installation at the site began in 1979 with initial assistance from the Dia Art Foundation
Dia Art Foundation
Dia Art Foundation is a non-profit organization that initiates, supports, presents, and preserves art projects. It was established in 1974 as the Lone Star Foundation by Philippa de Menil, the daughter of Houston arts patron Dominique de Menil and an heiress to the Schlumberger oil exploration...
in New York. The Chinati Foundation opened to the public in 1986 as an independent, non-profit, publicly funded institution.
Chinati was originally conceived to exhibit the work of Donald Judd
Donald Judd
Donald Clarence Judd was an American artist associated with minimalism . In his work, Judd sought autonomy and clarity for the constructed object and the space created by it, ultimately achieving a rigorously democratic presentation without compositional hierarchy...
, John Chamberlain and Dan Flavin
Dan Flavin
Dan Flavin was an American minimalist artist famous for creating sculptural objects and installations from commercially available fluorescent light fixtures.-Early life and career:...
. However, the idea of the foundation developed further and its collection was enriched over years, and now the collection has expanded to include Carl Andre
Carl Andre
Carl Andre is an American minimalist artist recognized for his ordered linear format and grid format sculptures. His sculptures range from large public artworks to more intimate tile patterns arranged on the floor of an exhibition space Carl Andre (born September 16, 1935) is an American...
, Ingólfur Arnarsson, Roni Horn
Roni Horn
Roni Horn is an American visual artist and writer. Horn's oeuvre, which spans almost four decades, encompasses sculpture, drawing, photography, language, and site-specific installation. The granddaughter of Eastern European Jewish immigrants, she was born in New York and lives and works in New York...
, Ilya Kabakov
Ilya Kabakov
Ilya Kabakov, Russian Илья́ Ио́сифович Кабако́в , is a Russian-American conceptual artist of Jewish descent, born in Dnipropetrovsk, Ukraine. He worked for thirty years in Moscow, from the 1950s until the late 1980s. He now lives and works on Long Island...
, Richard Long
Richard Long (artist)
Richard Long is an English sculptor, photographer and painter, one of the best known British land artists. Long is the only artist to be shortlisted for the Turner Prize four times, and he is reputed to have refused the prize in 1984...
, Claes Oldenburg
Claes Oldenburg
Claes Oldenburg is a Swedish sculptor, best known for his public art installations typically featuring very large replicas of everyday objects...
and Coosje van Bruggen
Coosje van Bruggen
Coosje van Bruggen was a sculptor, art historian, and critic. She collaborated extensively with her husband, Claes Oldenburg.-Biography:...
, David Rabinowitch, and John Wesley
John Wesley
John Wesley was a Church of England cleric and Christian theologian. Wesley is largely credited, along with his brother Charles Wesley, as founding the Methodist movement which began when he took to open-air preaching in a similar manner to George Whitefield...
. Each artist's work is installed in a separate building on the museum's grounds. Temporary exhibitions feature modern and contemporary art of diverse media. The latest temporary exhibition is work by Hiroshi Sugimoto, which is on view until July, 2012.
It was Judd’s goal at Chinati to bring art, architecture, and nature together in order to form a coherent whole.
Marianne Stockebrand served as the foundation's director from 1994 through 2010. Since 2011, Thomas Kellein assumed the role of director. In 2002, Kellein curated of an exhibition of Donald Judd's works, while as director of Kunsthalle Bielefeld
Kunsthalle Bielefeld
The Kunsthalle Bielefeld is a modern art museum in Bielefeld, Germany. It was designed by Philip Johnson in 1968, and paid for by the businessman and art patron Rudolf August Oetker.-Collection and exhibitions:...
in Germany.
Community
The Chinati Foundation sponsors art and education programs, establishing close links to the local community and other cultural institutions and universities in the United States and abroad. Started by Judd, Chinati's Artists in Residence Program provides artists from around the world an opportunity to develop and exhibit their work in a stimulating environment. Chinati's Internship Program offers students from a variety of disciplines hands-on museum experience. Each summer the museum hosts art classes for local students. Chinati has been producing an annual newsletter in English and Spanish since 1995 (some of the backnumbers are available at the Chinati bookstore).Visiting
The Chinati Foundation is open by guided tour only. Public tours are available Wednesday through Sunday. Because of the amount of time necessary to view the entire collection, the tour is split into two parts, with a break for lunch between the two sections. Tours begin promptly at 10:00 am, break for lunch around noon, and resume at 2:00 pm for the second half of the tour. In addition to the Full Collection Tour, the museum also offers a Selections Tour, covering work by Donald Judd, Dan Flavin and John Chamberlain (11:00 am - 1:00 pm) and a tour covering the work by Donald Judd (3:45 pm - 4:30 pm).The closest airports to Marfa are in El Paso and Midland/Odessa. It is about 3-hour drive from either airport.