Donald Judd 1957–1963: Paintings and Objects is the most comprehensive exploration to date of Donald Judd’s paintings and early works, providing unparalleled insight into the pivotal seven-year period in which the artist transitioned from two-dimensional to three-dimensional work. Judd’s radical practice helped shape the look of the late twentieth century and still influences artists, architects, and designers worldwide. Through his visual work and critical writing, Judd introduced an art that exists on its own terms, exercising a transformative impact on the ways in which both art objects and practical designs are produced, exhibited, and used.

Designed by Flavin Judd and Michael Dyer, the unique publication comprises two softcover books—both bound to the hardcover case—which open in opposite directions. One book contains three essays on aspects of Judd’s early work in painting, tracing its evolution into his object-oriented practice. The other reproduces numerous plates and details, alongside personal photographs, printed ephemera, and contextual imagery.

In her essay “Maybe It’s the Fact That I’m a Painter,” art historian Eileen Costello looks at Judd’s artistic emergence and development, examining how an interest in color continued to inflect his later, three-dimensional work. In her text “Donald Judd and Painting,” art historian and curator Lynn Zelevansky further explores Judd’s oeuvre, focusing on several paintings in detail and delving into the artist’s interaction with the art and theory of his time. Finally, in “The Ground and the Center: Inside the Paintings of Donald Judd,” art historian Sarah K. Rich considers the material and optical composition of Judd’s painted output, linking its materiality to that of the artist’s sculpture.