{"id":645568,"date":"2026-08-19T14:37:15","date_gmt":"2026-08-19T14:37:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/645568\/"},"modified":"2026-08-19T14:37:15","modified_gmt":"2026-08-19T14:37:15","slug":"donald-judds-retrofitted-artillery-sheds-in-texas-to-undergo-extensive-restoration-work-the-art-newspaper","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/645568\/","title":{"rendered":"Donald Judd\u2019s retrofitted Artillery Sheds in Texas to undergo extensive restoration work – The Art Newspaper"},"content":{"rendered":"

This autumn, restoration work will commence on the two former artillery sheds that house Donald Judd<\/a>\u2019s 100 untitled works in mill aluminium (1982-86) at the Chinati Foundation<\/a> in Marfa, Texas. Having remained precisely where Judd sited them, each of the mill-aluminium boxes will be moved for the first time in more than 40 years, so that a team of conservators can address crucial infrastructure concerns in the buildings. The restoration project comes on the heels of the Artillery Sheds\u2019 recognition last year on the National Register of Historic Places<\/a> as part of the Donald Judd Historic District<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Judd acquired the sheds in the late 1970s, purchasing the majority of Fort D.A. Russell\u2014a compound built in 1939 by the US Army Corps of Engineers\u2014with the vision of creating a museum of permanent, site-specific installations.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe art and architecture of the past that we know is that which remains,\u201d Judd wrote in a 1987 statement about his concept for Chinati. \u201cThe best is that which remains where it was painted, placed or built.\u201d With this long view of history, he believed that \u201csomewhere a portion of contemporary art has to exist as an example of what the art and its context were meant to be\u201d.<\/p>\n

This precisely has been Chinati\u2019s mission. Its sprawling campus of 340 acres on the northeastern edge of the Chihuahuan Desert boasts 34 buildings with permanent installations by artists including Dan Flavin<\/a>, Roni Horn<\/a>, Carl Andre<\/a> and Robert Irwin<\/a>. In addition, a large building in the centre of town is dedicated to John Chamberlain<\/a>; it was the first of Chinati\u2019s buildings to undergo restoration in 2022 and thus serves, in the words of executive director Caitlin Murray, as a \u201creally good example of how to do this well\u201d.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Donald Judd inspects the recently installed pre-fabricated metal panel roof on the South Artillery Shed, 1984 Courtesy the Chinati Foundation Archives<\/p>\n

Beset by a changing climate, with increasingly intense rainstorms and rising temperatures, Chinati has assembled a team of experts to devise an altogether invisible strategy for mitigating wear to the Artillery Sheds and safeguarding them for years to come. The team includes Schaum Architects;\u00a0Alfred Lippincott, who partnered with Judd on the original fabrication and placement of the works in the 1980s; and the\u00a0Getty Conservation Institute<\/a>; alongside engineers, climate specialists, conservators and landscape designers.<\/p>\n

Despite Judd\u2019s extensive writing on art, architecture and the stakes of museological display, \u201che didn\u2019t provide a direct mandate about care\u201d, Murray tells The Art Newspaper. \u201cOur overall goal for the team is to preserve the experience of the work as Judd intended, and to make sure we\u2019re creating opportunities for visitors to experience Judd\u2019s work on their own terms with as little distraction as possible.\u201d<\/p>\n

Climate-control systems that other museums might readily install are thus out of the question for Chinati. Such interventions, though ideal for ensuring long-term preservation, would fundamentally contradict Judd\u2019s intention for the spaces.<\/p>\n

The multi-year project will instead include the installation of energy-efficient glass and passive air-circulation systems to reduce temperatures, the implementation of rainwater harvesting systems to facilitate drainage and sustain newly planted native grasses, the creation of improved pathways for greater accessibility, and repairs to the roofs, gutters and fa\u00e7ades.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not just the building or the artworks,\u201d Murray says, speaking of Judd\u2019s ethos, \u201cbut the integration of the art, architecture and landscape. That goes for all the works in Chinati\u2019s collection.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Donald Judd\u2019s 100 untitled works in mill aluminium (1982\u201386) Photo: Alex Marks, courtesy the Chinati Foundation. Donald Judd art: \u00a9 2026 Judd Foundation \/ Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York<\/p>\n

\u201cOne of the things that\u2019s unique about this work,\u201d Murray continues, \u201cis that because we don\u2019t have mechanical systems, there\u2019s a quietness. We think about the incredible visual nature of these works but, as we experience these spaces, there\u2019s something sensorially that\u2019s bigger than the visual.\u201d<\/p>\n

To preserve this experience as much as possible, the restoration team devised a passive-air system. Schaum Architects explains in a report that this includes \u201cusing the existing opening and\u00a0breaks caused by concrete expansion joints so that minimal filtered fresh air will circulate in the space\u201d. The approach, which reflects a changing tide in conservation practice<\/a> internationally, focuses on \u201cmoderating extremes rather than chasing a static, museum-standard environment\u201d.<\/p>\n

The restoration team has additionally adopted an approach comparable to Judd\u2019s own working methods to refit the Artillery Sheds\u2019 quartered windows\u2014designed by the artist to supplant the buildings\u2019 garage doors\u2014with new\u00a0single-pane glass treated to shed dust and reduce\u00a0temperatures. To ensure that the new windows are indistinguishable from the originals, the team will do \u201cfull scale mock-ups of a few types of glass, and will live with them for a year to study and experience the glass directly and its relationship to the work\u201d, Murray says. \u201cTransparency from outside through to the concrete works is of paramount importance.\u201d<\/p>\n

The 39th annual Chinati Weekend (9-11 October) will be a final opportunity to visit the Artillery Sheds before work begins in November. \u201cThis is a once-in-a-generation preservation project,\u201d Murray says. \u201cThis work is so fundamental to Chinati and the experience of Chinati. We want to take our time to do it carefully, to do it correctly.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This autumn, restoration work will commence on the two former artillery sheds that house Donald Judd\u2019s 100 untitled…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":645569,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[267],"tags":[367,365,362,363,364,366,40746,18,117,273196,19,17,40744,7599,273195,589,2461,273194],"class_list":["post-645568","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-arts-and-design","tag-architecture","tag-arts","tag-arts-and-design","tag-artsanddesign","tag-artsdesign","tag-design","tag-donald-judd","tag-eire","tag-entertainment","tag-getty-conservation-institute","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-marfa","tag-museums-heritage","tag-national-register-of-historic-places","tag-restoration","tag-texas","tag-the-chinati-foundation"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/117122686334535131","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/645568","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=645568"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/645568\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/645569"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=645568"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=645568"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=645568"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}