Provenance
Private Collection (acquired directly from the artist in 1990)
Christie's, New York, November 8, 2011, lot 43
Acquired at the above sale by the present owner
Exhibited
Montreal, ARSENAL MONTRÉAL+TORONTO, April 1 - October 31, 2014
London, Phillips, A Very Short History of Contemporary Sculpture, Curated by Francesco Bonami, October 6 - October 31, 2014, n.p. (illustrated)
Catalogue Essay
A pair of colors that I knew of as a child in Nebraska was red and black. Donald Judd, 1994

Untitled (Menziken 88-16), 1988, stands as a last innovation of the artist’s signature sculptural form—the stack. Judd varied the form of the stack throughout his career, but the fundamental ideas stayed the same, i.e., a work consisting of identical shaped elements, hanging at regular intervals, in which each part was of equal importance. Donald Judd’s artistic goal was to eliminate the pictorial illusion and narrative allusion that had dominated the history of sculpture. The appearance of the present lot is timely as the artist will be honored with a comprehensive retrospective at The Museum of Modern Art in New York in 2017. This will be Judd’s first museum survey in the United States since 1988, the year of the present lot’s creation.

For the Menziken series Judd used Swiss-manufactured aluminum, achieving an even, matte sheen, one that reflects light with elegance and subtlety. The repetition of engineered rectangular containers that compose Untitled (Menziken 88-16) is fundamental to the artist’s notion that the serial ideal was itself a rigorous method of artistic production and not merely a stylistic choice or gesture. Judd’s original stacks of the 1960s more often than not situated color on a horizontal axis at either the top or bottom of the box, which allowed light to project outward. With his series of Menzikens of the 1980s, color is contained within the rectangular interiors. The viewer engages directly with the vibrant hues within each unit; simultaneously, these taut units of color have an emanating presence that reverberates within the larger space they occupy.

From the early 1960s onward Judd favored cadmium red, beginning with oil paint on his constructed objects and later moving towards manufactured red materials. Judd felt that red, in particular, articulated the edges, angles and textures of his incisive forms. The impeccably anodized silver aluminum offers an intriguing contrast to the deeply hued cadmium red on the right side of the boxes. On the left side of each box, the deep black acrylic sheet is boldly amplified by the layering of a green acrylic sheet on top. This work is one of an exclusive and limited number of pieces in which the artist employed this complex layering technique.
Judd recalled from his childhood the symbolic meaning of red and black for the Lakota people of the Great Sioux Nation; these colors also reference Attic vase painting, Maya codices, and contemporary artists Josef Albers and Barbara Kruger. For Judd, the marriage of red and black resulted in a specific visual experience: “In a way, side-by-side, the red and the black become one color. They become a two-color monochrome. Red and black together are so familiar that they almost form a new unity.” (Donald Judd, “Some Aspects of Color in General and Red and Black in Particular,” 1993, in Colorist, Ostfildern, 2000, p. 79) The Menziken boxes capture Judd’s relentless experimentation with new materials, color combinations, scale and form. Untitled (Menziken 88-16) is a quintessential example of Judd’s thoroughly innovative aesthetic: it is austere in form and concept while alluringly sophisticated in its subtle approach to color and its calibrated formal treatment.
Artist Biography
Donald Judd
American • 1928 - 1994
Donald Judd came to critical acclaim in the 1960s with his simple, yet revolutionary, three-dimensional floor and wall objects made from new industrial materials, such as anodized aluminum, plywood and Plexiglas, which had no precedent in the visual arts. His oeuvre is characterized by the central constitutive elements of color, material and space. Rejecting the illusionism of painting and seeking an aesthetic freed from metaphorical associations, Judd sought to explore the relationship between art object, viewer and surrounding space with his so-called "specific objects." From the outset of his three-decade-long career, Judd delegated the fabrication to specialized technicians. Though associated with the minimalist movement, Judd did not wish to confine his practice to this categorization.

Inspired by architecture, the artist also designed and produced his own furniture, predominantly in wood, and eventually hired a diverse team of carpenters late in his career.
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To be Sold Without Reserve: Property of a Private Collector

19

Lot offered with No Reserve

Donald Judd

Untitled (Menziken 88-16)

stamped with artist's signature and title "DONALD JUDD 88-16 A-F ALUMINIUM AG MENZIKEN" on the reverse of each unit
clear anodized aluminum with green over black and red acrylic sheet
6 parts, each 19 5/8 x 39 3/8 x 19 5/8 in. (50 x 100 x 50 cm.)
Executed in 1988, this work can be installed with only 5 of the 6 boxes, as dictated by the scale and physical space of the room.

Estimate
$2,000,000 - 3,000,000 •

Sold for $2,410,000

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Kate Bryan
Head of Evening Sale
New York
+ 1 212 940 1267

20th Century & Contemporary Art Evening Sale

New York Auction 16 November 5 PM EST

1
Carmen Herrera
Cerulean
Estimate $600,000 - 800,000
Sold for $970,000
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2
Mark Grotjahn
Untitled (Crimson Red and Canary Yellow Butterfly 45.93)
Estimate $600,000 - 800,000
Sold for $1,450,000
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3
Wade Guyton
Untitled
Estimate $1,200,000 - 1,500,000
Sold for $1,990,000
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4
Henry Taylor
He's Hear, and He's Thair
Estimate $40,000 - 60,000
Sold for $60,000
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5
Michaël Borremans
Sweet Disposition
Estimate $500,000 - 700,000
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6
Vija Celmins
Untitled
Estimate $1,500,000 - 2,500,000
Sold for $2,890,000
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7
Gerhard Richter
Dϋsenjäger
Estimate $25,000,000 - 35,000,000
Sold for $25,565,000
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8
Kazuo Shiraga
T40
Estimate $1,200,000 - 1,800,000
Sold for $1,450,000
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9
Clyfford Still
Untitled
Estimate $12,000,000 - 18,000,000
Sold for $13,690,000
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10
Gerhard Richter
Abstraktes Bild (720-2)
Estimate $5,000,000 - 7,000,000
Sold for $6,410,000
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11
Sigmar Polke
Untitled
Estimate $1,000,000 - 1,500,000
Sold for $1,150,000
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12
David Hockney
The Gate
Estimate $6,000,000 - 8,000,000
Sold for $6,970,000
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13
Alexander Calder
Two Horizontals and Nine Verticals
Estimate $1,800,000 - 2,500,000
Sold for $2,050,000
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14
Roy Lichtenstein
Ceramic Sculpture #7
Estimate $400,000 - 600,000
Sold for $394,000
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15
Roy Lichtenstein
Nudes in Mirror
Estimate On Request
Sold for $21,530,000
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16
Jean Dubuffet
Corps de dame, la rose incarnate
Estimate $2,000,000 - 3,000,000
Sold for $2,290,000
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17
Aristide Maillol
Baigneuse accroupie (Crouching woman)
Estimate $100,000 - 150,000
Sold for $162,500
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18
Jeff Koons
Italian Woman
Estimate $3,000,000 - 5,000,000
Sold for $3,610,000
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19No Reserve
Donald Judd
Untitled (Menziken 88-16)
Estimate $2,000,000 - 3,000,000 •
Sold for $2,410,000
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20
Yayoi Kusama
Infinity Nets (OZEH)
Estimate $1,500,000 - 2,000,000
Sold for $1,810,000
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21
Mira Schendel
Sem titulo (XII)
Estimate $800,000 - 1,200,000
Sold for $970,000
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22
Andy Warhol
Cowboys and Indians
Estimate $250,000 - 350,000
Sold for $394,000
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23
Keith Haring
Snake and Man; Dogs and Men
Estimate $700,000 - 1,000,000
Sold for $1,102,000
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24
Jean-Michel Basquiat
Untitled (Devil's head)
Estimate $3,000,000 - 5,000,000
Sold for $3,610,000
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25
Jean Dubuffet
Le Gommeux
Estimate $700,000 - 1,000,000
Sold for $760,000
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26
Damien Hirst
Disintegration - The Crown of Life
Estimate $1,000,000 - 1,500,000
Sold for $1,150,000
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27
George Condo
Noble Woman
Estimate $500,000 - 700,000
Sold for $1,006,000
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28
Richard Prince
I Went to the Doctor
Estimate $2,000,000 - 3,000,000
Sold for $1,570,000
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29
Ed Ruscha
Peas, Asparagus
Estimate $600,000 - 800,000
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30
Joan Mitchell
Untitled
Estimate $300,000 - 500,000
Sold for $370,000
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31
Morris Louis
Tzadik
Estimate $1,500,000 - 2,500,000
Sold for $1,630,000
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32
Joe Bradley
Frankenstein
Estimate $500,000 - 700,000
Sold for $346,000
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33
Dan Flavin
untitled (for Leo Castelli at his gallery’s 30th anniversary) 3
Estimate $200,000 - 300,000
Sold for $322,000
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34
Jean Dubuffet
Femme aux Vêtements Laineux
Estimate $180,000 - 250,000
Sold for $274,000
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35
Francis Picabia
Untitled (Femme nue)
Estimate $200,000 - 300,000
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36
Alexander Archipenko
Statue on Triangular Base
Estimate $350,000 - 450,000
Sold for $394,000
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37
Sigmar Polke
Untitled (Silver Painting)
Estimate $500,000 - 700,000
Sold for $490,000
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20th Century & Contemporary Art Evening Sale

New York Auction 16 November 5 PM EST

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Provenance

Exhibited

Catalogue Essay

Artist Biography

Donald Judd

19

Donald Judd

Untitled (Menziken 88-16)

20th Century & Contemporary Art Evening Sale

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