Donald Judd: Kinesthetic perception of space – Judd’s work and the contemporary discourse of three-dimensionality and space

Ziel der vorliegenden Dissertation ist es, eine neue Betrachtungsweise auf das Werk des Minimalisten Donald Judd (1928–1994) zu etablieren. Gegenstand des Forschungsvorhabens ist dabei die Rekonstruktion der Debatte um die amerikanische Minimal Art, einer Kunstströmung, die sich Mitte der 1960er Jahre in New York entwickelt hat, mit dem Fokus auf ihren Protagonisten Donald Judd. Den Schwerpunkt nehmen hierbei Einzeldebatten über die amerikanische Nachkriegskunst und der Blick auf Donald Judd unter dem Aspekt von Wahrnehmung und Raum ein. Den Höhepunkt in Bezug auf räumliche Entwicklung und Wahrnehmung stellt Judds Hauptwerk in Marfa, Texas, dar.My dissertation analyzes to what extent the sublime can be found in the work of Donald Judd. Thus, the academic research will work interdisciplinary between art history and philosophy. Philosophical concepts of the sublime and beautiful serve as a basis for my discussion. Additionally, the relation between art and the sublime will be defined. For example, Barnett Newman, considered an American Abstract Expressionist, suggests the sublime is an essential quality of art in his essay The Sublime is Now (1948). This claim ultimately shifted the focus of art, which according to Friedrich Schelling was defined as “the imitator of nature” to art as an autonomic category. Concerning the connection between the sublime and the art of Donald Judd, space serves as an essential component linking philosophical and artistic ideas. In view of this, the development of three-dimensionality and space will be essential in my dissertation. Space is of genuine importance to Judd as well as to the experience of the sublime by the viewer. Space will be used as an abstract category as well as a formal one in my dissertation, to make plausible the connection between Donald Judd, space and transcendence. Judd himself used the terms “space” and “perception” in his writings – terms that refer to philosophical spheres. Also “presence” is related to new scopes of art-perception. This argument becomes apparent in the interview, New Nihilism or New Art (1964), by Bruce Glaser of Donald Judd, Frank Stella, and Dan Flavin. For the first time, the original interview has been transcribed in full and attached to the dissertation, in comparison with the later edited article by Lucy R. Lippard, Questions to Stella and Judd (1966). In his piece “100 untitled boxes in mill aluminum” (1982-86) installed in Marfa, Texas, at the Chinati Foundation, Donald Judd reached a perceptual accord by integrating art, architecture and nature. This represents the climax of the experience of space and sublime, as put forward in my hypothesis. The discussion follows the phenomenology and chronology of the works of art in order to reach new scopes of perception. For the first time, this project attempts to reconcile the art of the American artist Donald Judd and the esthetic category of the sublime. In light of this background, it is my aim in this dissertation to establish a new approach to viewing the art of the minimalist Donald Judd. Since the approach in my research project is phenomenological in nature, it is expected to provide an enhanced and extended perception of the works of Minimal Art