50 years of Donald Judd's Untitled, 1974–75

The influential artist, designer, architect and art critic, Donald Judd (1928–1994) was one of America’s leading postwar artists when he designed the large site-specific concrete sculpture Untitled for the rear of the Gallery in 1974. This year marks the fiftieth anniversary of its unveiling. Revered by some, subjected to protests by others, it has been a significant presence on the back lawn of the Gallery over five decades.

The work is a rare, outdoor, site-specific sculpture by Judd. It belongs to a series created by the artist from the early 1970s onwards, made in a range of industrial media that responded to the topography of a site. In these works Judd explored the relationship between two levels: the horizon line – an ideal – and one that traced the angle of the land on which the work (and viewer) were situated. The dynamic between these two levels forms the crux of the viewing experience.

Judd explained that he preferred not to make any general claims about his art, choosing instead to describe his practice as drawing attention to ‘specific objects’. In Untitled, 1974–75, Judd brings the material of locally sourced concrete into dialogue with wood, the imprint of the timber formwork visible on the exterior surface of the work.

Judd was commissioned to create the sculpture on the occasion of the artist’s participation in a travelling exhibition Some Recent American Art, from the Museum of Modern Art. He visited the Gallery in May 1974.

This display brings together Judd’s preparatory drawings for the work and archival material related to the commission, as well as other Judd works from the collection. To mark the fiftieth anniversary of the unveiling of the sculpture, the Gallery has made a film, with the support of David McKee AO and Marshall & Brougham Pty Ltd, to celebrate this remarkable and important work.