Poster for Judd Conference featuring image of Judd's 1974 piece at the PCVA (photo Maryanne Caruthers)

The University of Oregon School of Architecture and Allied Arts and PORT are pleased to announce what promises to be a major highlight of Portland's 2010 cultural calendar; a scholarly conference and exhibition, "Donald Judd: Delegated Fabrication; history, practices, issues and implications" on April 25th 2010. With keynote speaker Robert Storr and other notables like Peter Ballantine, this promises to be a conference where Judd's most radical artistic contributions are examined and discussed. Space will be limited to encourage discussion so this wont be one of those static lecture and listen style events.

Furthermore, I'll be curating the exhibition Donald Judd, which will support and encourage the conferences discussion. It opens on conference day and runs through May 21st at the U of O's White Box gallery in Portland. The event is sponsored by the University of Oregon's School of Architecture and Allied Arts, PORT and through the generous patron support of Bonnie Serkin and Will Emery.

Official Website for registration
$65 early registration (through March 22)
$35 students

Sunday, April 25, 2010
University of Oregon in Portland
White Stag Block
70 NW Couch Street, Portland, OR 97209

So why Portland? First of all, there needs to be more scholarship on Judd. Judd completed his first full room sized installation here in 1974 and wrote about the piece in his last essay, "Some Aspects of Color in General and Red and Black in Particular." Also, Judd's Douglas Fir plywood mostly came from Oregon (in fact industrial plywood was invented in Portland and showcased in the 1905 Worlds Fair). Overall though, Portland is kind of "Switzerland" or neutral ground in terms of Judd history, we aren't New York or Marfa and though those were his two main centers Judd was active globally till his death in 1994.

Arcy and I have been hard at work on this for over a year now and the whole process began when Arcy wrote his piece on Donald Judd's important 1974 exhibition at the Portland Center for the Visual Arts. It was Judd's first full room installation and part of a series of little known plywood works in London, Portland, Bern, Los Angeles... etc. (most will be familiar with the slant piece at Dia Beacon). That article lead to the Judd Foundation pointing Arcy to longtime Judd fabricator, restorer and curator Peter Ballantine and the wheels were set in motion. Tremendous thanks should go out to those responsible for making this important event happen, Bonnie Serkin and Will Emery, Peter Ballantine, Kate Wagle (University of Oregon Portland), Arcy Douglass (Conference Director), Sarah Meigs, Paige Saez (graphic design), PAM's chief curator Bruce Guenther and The Portland Art Museum's Crumpaker library whose PCVA archives made this all happen.

For April art venues in the Portland metro area will have Judd Conference related programming:

Elizabeth Leach Gallery will present a show of Judd prints and Museum of Contemporary Craft, PDX Contemporary Art, Reed College's Cooley Gallery, Froelick Gallery and Linfield College will all have related shows. Add that to the Portland Art Museum's continuing Disquieted and Twombly shows... plus PICA's TADA party the night before on the 24th and you have got one great Portland art weekend.

Awesome. Now how do I get in for free?