Chinati Auction Raises Approximately $1.5M

The benefit auction, Artists For Chinati, which was held on March 13, 2006 raised over $1,500,000.00 for the non-profit art organization founded by the late Donald Judd. The Chinati Foundation must be pleased with the results since over 70% of the lots (including all the big ticket items) sold for more than the pre-auction estimate. The auction was held in New York at Philips de Pury and Company. The house earned over $300,000.00 or just under 20% which was garnered from the buyer's premiums.

The top seller was John Chamberlain's Wanda Wedgie which was bid to $374,400 (sale figures include the buyer's premium.) All of the Judds did well, especially a Library Desk from 1988 which sold for $216,000. Other notable results include Ken Price's Big Boss Jackson, estimated from $30k - $40k which brought a hefty $126,000, and Jack Pierson's The Sky at $120,000.

This auction is one component in an effort by Chinati to match a $5 million challenge grant issued by Lannan Foundation and the Leonard Riggio family for the museum’s Endowment Fund.

See the lots here, and full results here.
See my previous posts about the auction here and here.
note: images are from another Philips de Pury event.

Taking Photos is Easier than Posting Them

You may have recieved a save-the-date card for Open House 2006 which happens to be scheduled for October 7th and 8th. How fast a year flies by! This bit of mail shook me from my slumber and I finally (sorry) got around to posting a few photos from Open House weekend 2005. It seemed like I was taking more photos than I apparently had been (only 10 worth posting!?). We could use your photos to bolster up the new album in the Marfa.Org Gallery. If you have any you'd like to post, please send them to me: mark at archibot dot com - Thanks! Check out the pictures here.

The Marfa.Org ®@ŋd¤m‡zЄ®

Christie's Presale Show:
Light and Space Enough to Really See Judd
[The New York Times] For the next two weeks, New York has something it may never have again: a small, unpretentious single-artist museum devoted to the achievements of the Minimalist sculptor Donald Judd. An untitled piece by Donald Judd at the Christie's presale show: a free-standing piece from 1988. This museum has been rather hastily assembled by an unlikely entity: Christie's New York. Its unlikely setting is two floors atop the Simon & Schuster Building, around the corner from the auction house at Rockefeller Center. The show is, in fact, the presale exhibition of 35 Judd works offered for sale by the Judd Foundation, established by the artist's estate in 1996, two years after his death. Everything on view is to be sold to the highest bidder on May 9, the final day of the show. The works, which date from around 1970 to 1993, form a haphazard, partial and sometimes redundant survey of... full article

Boxing Day
[New York Magazine] Buyers continue to gravitate toward contemporary art—and Donald Judd’s the hottest ticket. At the postwar- and contemporary-art auctions this year, the grown-ups will get plenty of respect. Collectors and dealers may be plucking kids out of art-school classrooms, but prices look solid for fortysomething German painters and eighties survivors like Jeff Koons, and the big money is on mid-century masters like de Kooning. Both Christie’s and Sotheby’s have made concerted efforts to win works by these heavy hitters while building street cred with work by conceptualists like Mike Kelley. Donald Judd—the late minimalist sculptor, designer, critic, and seer-philosopher—dominates Christie’s May 9 Post-War & Contemporary sale, expected to reach $160 million. Twenty-six works from the Judd Foundation are in the evening sale, about $15 million worth. BIG PRIZES: The top Judd lot is a stacked tier of six plywood boxes backed... full article

Exploration Co. Signs Partner for Marfa Basin
Continental Resources Joins Marfa Basin Play
Auburn Students Study Chinati for Base Reuse

Secret Machines Film Movie in Town

You may remember Secret Machines from Open House 2003 if you were lucky enough to catch their performace "in-the-round" at the AmVets building. The psychodelic New York rock band, originally from Dallas and OKC, filled the hall with a massive sound laced with spatial depth - somehow incredibly appropriate for the time and place... definitely the most fitting music act invited to Open House weekend so far. Apparently that weekend has left an indelible mark on the band's outlook, as they recently returned to film a full-length art film.

-Weird, What is That?
[Nashville Scene] "...they’ve been embraced by a tiny art community in far west Texas, internationally known not only for its art, but for its rich history of unexplained supernatural phenomena... “There’s ghost towns and hot springs and weird art installations and strange unexplained lights,” says Brandon fondly. He’s referring to the area in and around Marfa, Texas, where the band recently shot a full-length film with the visually complementary avant-garde director Charles de Meaux—ringleader behind the Paris-based production company Anna Sanders Films. Brandon gives the backstory: “Every October, there’s a big party there held by this art group, the Chanati Foundation. We played there in 2003 and 2004 and the people we performed for were so varied: artists, ranchers, children, border-town people, just the most diverse and interesting audience we’d ever experienced—it was totally positive and exciting. So we had the idea to try and capture that feeling and talk about what is really going on there.”

“One of the initial attractions was Donald Judd’s legacy,” says Josh. Judd’s the minimalist sculptor that helped launch Marfa’s art mecca. “When we got there,” Josh elaborates, “we realized, the attraction’s not him, there’s something in the air, in the ground, something in this part of the world.” All three Secret Machines excitedly start chiming in. Brandon: “There’s a mystical-like quality, a feeling of something much bigger than humanity.” Ben: “There’s this huge mountain there that’s almost completely made of iron and causes a lot of electrical interferences. The magnetics are really crazy and have a peculiar effect on the plants and the animals—and our equipment. We wrote and recorded a whole bunch of new music while we were there and all of our shit kept breaking.” full article

-Secret Machines Work from Online Base
[Monsters & Critics] To help promote 'Ten Silver Drops,' the band shot a film in Marfa, Texas, based on the songs on the album. Watts-Russell [VP of A&R at Warner Brso.] hasn`t seen it yet, but says the act pitched it as a cross between the Wim Wenders film 'Wings of Desire' and Pink Floyd`s 'Live at Pompeii.' 'Time will tell whether they pull it off, but it`s certainly a creative endeavor,' he says. full article

Tad Wiley Reception Tomorrow, HWY 90 Gallery

A reception for New York-based artist Tad Wiley will be held Friday April 21 from 6 to 8.30. Wiley’s paintings are composed of layers of translucent color applied to smooth surfaces. (Example here.) The work is animated by the tension between imposing, stark geometric shapes and shimmering layers of color. Wiley’s work will be display at the gallery until June 2. HWY 90 Gallery, which opened in 2005, is located in a storefront that was recently renovated by Marfa mayor David Lanman. The gallery is located across the street from Donald Judd’s private residence (commonly called the Block). More info here.

The Marfa.Org ®@ŋd¤m‡zЄ®

Marfa On My Mind [Artnet]
Editorial Regarding Marfa Zoning Mismanagement
MPR Intern Searching for Housing
You are Here, Ballroom Review by James Bae
Recent Additions to the Marfa.Org Gallery

Marfa Photo Essay by Allison V. Smith

Blue Eyes Magazine has just published a really amazing set of photos by Allison V. Smith. For fans of Smith, some of the 23 photos are familiar, but there are many new images in the essay as well. All the photos are from the Marfa area. (Allison tells me that she is stretching the boundaries of town.) Actually, the cover shot for the essay, selected by Blue Eyes Magazine, is from Marathon. It is a quintessential Smith/Marfa photo; the geometry of a deserted racetrack is contrasted against the rugged terrain of the high desert. The work is very powerful and shares similarities with Donald Judd's - Smith identifies simple geometry, and sometimes, repetition, and allows it to exist in the landscape. And she does this without mimicking Judd, a trap that sometimes seems hard to avoid. Smith is represented by Barry Whistler Gallery in Dallas. The essay is viewable online here: Marfa Photo Essay

P.T. Anderson Film To Be Shot in "Martha, TX"

The new Paul Thomas Anderson film, There Will Be Blood, is set for production. Much of the filming will be in Marfa, despite reports indicating that little known Martha, Texas is hosting the production. Otherwise good article here. Anderson is known for writing and directing Boogie Nights and Magnolia. Blood is loosely based on Upton Sinclair's 1927 novel "Oil!" Daniel Day Lewis will star as a turn-of-the-century prospector. Discussion can be found here.

Desperately Seeking... Pilot Roster

We just received a nice note via the form at the bottom of the page. Ms. Truitt is looking for assistance in finding a list of Fort D.A. Russell students. I know that occassionally I see fort yearbooks for sale on eBay. You may want to try that Janice.

"Is there anywhere I could get a list of names of the pilots who trained at the airfield before/during WWII? I remember my dad, William Dale Weiss talking about Marfa when I was just a kid... Are the buildings south of the highway out by the marfa lights viewing area part of the airfield? Every time I have been out there I was simply itching to go and look at them even though I know they are probably on private land. The last time I was there was some time in the late 1980's... We lived in alpine from 1987 to 1990 - fond memories of fried chicken, potato salad, koolaid, lawn chairs and the marfa lights. That was way back when the viewing area was just a gravel parking lot. I will look forward to hearing from you."
Janice Truitt, Fort Worth

The Marfa.Org ®@ŋd¤m‡zЄ®

Art, Mystery Lights Keep West Texas Town Weird
[Ft. Worth Star Telegram] ... Photographer Jill Johnson and I are in Marfa mostly because of Jill. She loves this place, with its clean desert air, tremendous bookstore, minimalist art galleries, renovated adobes. I am a little jaded. I lived in Santa Fe in the early '80s and witnessed its transformation from a beautiful, centuries-old cultural crossroads into a plywood-coyote-bedecked attraction with a chain ice cream store on the historic Plaza.
Could it happen here? Some of the elements are in place: desert, adobe, art, great sunsets, simplicity, serenity. In fact, some of the same transplanted Easterners are here -- they left Santa Fe and moved to Marfa. The price of a quaint, crumbling adobe is climbing faster than a lizard up a tree -- from around $20,000 decades ago to as much as $300,000-$400,000 now.
But Marfa is pretty remote. It's a long day's drive from the Metroplex, and three hours from the airport in Midland. The only thing it's really on the way to is the Big Bend, a good place to go when you really need to be in the middle of big, gorgeous nowhere.
On the surface, Marfa looks like any other small Texas town. Then you find out about great New York-style pizza; an Andy Warhol hung in giant, otherwise empty room that is randomly open for viewing; world-class sculptures standing around out in the pasture; a never-to-open Prada store sitting in the middle of the desert and planned to become a ruin (it's an art installation). . . .
Thompson says, "So far, Marfa is intact. We don't have any of those tacky, craftsy stores."...

On the Screen at the Library
Monday 8:30 - Heights
Tuesday 8:00 - The Squid and the Whale
Wednesday 8:00 - Good Night, and Good Luck
Coming Soon: Paradise Now, Loggerheads, A History Of Violence, Bob Dylan: No Direction Home

20th-Floor Views for Judd at Christie's
[Artnet] New York’s coolest new exhibition space is the 20th floor of the Simon & Schuster Building at 1230 Avenue of the Americas in Rockefeller Center, where Christie’s New York has put on view 36 Donald Judd works that go on the block on May 9-10, 2006. Installed in a raw, cement-floored office space flooded with natural light (and with striking vistas of midtown Manhattan), the works range from rare early pieces from 1962-63, fabricated in 1988 for Judd’s Whitney Museum retrospective, to a large Plexi and plywood stack piece made a year before the artist’s death in 1994...

Coen Brothers to Film in Marfa
The Production Manager for the Coen Brothers' new film based on Cormac McCarthy's last book, No Country for Old Men, has been scouring Marfa for shoot locations. Talk has it it will star Tommy Lee Jones, and possibly Joaquin Phoenix, Barry Tubb (who was in Top Gun and is from Snyder), and Heath Ledger. Filming may be out at Liz Lambert's bunkhouse north of Marfa, Fowlkes Ranch, as well as other locations. We hear that "all external shots" will be filmed here. The story follows a Vietnam vet who stumbles upon a heroin deal gone bad. He then becomes the hunted, as the various interested parties search for their dough. It takes place in 1980. (thanks Marge)


DeGuerin: Meetings Law Muzzles Pols
Ann Arbor, MI: Big-Picture Minimalism

Galleri Urbane Announces Spring Show

This year's event will be a two in one showcase: part solo show, part group show.

In the “Box” (a solo space within the gallery), is west coast artist Andrea Zuill. Andrea has been preparing for this event for the past year, creating a series of large oil paintings. The show When the painting is complete, will be on display thru June 21. Ms. Zuill, born in Bakersfield, California, is a self-taught artist that has been painting and drawing since her teens. As an adult Andrea started to paint very realistic portraits that evolved into a distinct style which looks to the inner human experience. Andrea paints from an alternative perspective creating intriguing, to some disturbing, yet humorous paintings.

When asked about her current work, Ms. Zuill explains that the it refers to how we see ourselves, and how we imagine our place in the world. The constant struggle for identity, beauty and a place in the natural world can be quite unnatural. Images of our physical and spiritual selves have been aggressively twisted lately. She asserts that the media bombards us with ideas on how to live, look, pray and love. What a person considers as beautiful can be challenged by what the world is being told is beautiful. We are becoming a society where beauty and life has only one look. Maybe this narrowing of ideals survives because of our desperate need to fit in. Andrea asks, what happens when we can’t fit into the narrow slot of what is normal and beautiful?

In the main gallery, Taking Shape is a five person show featuring Faith Gay, Candace Briceno, Katherine Shaughnessy, Leslie Wilkes, and Sandra Preston.

Austin artist Faith Gay will create an original site-specific piece in Galleri Urbane. She utilizes melted plastic beads and other mass-produced objects in her work. The beads are arranged on the wall in organic, irregular configurations. The finished piece results in a vibrant colorful creation that ungulates from the wall, drawing in the curious viewer. Ms. Gay received her BFA in sculpture at U.T. and was recently the selected artist in the Austin Red Hot Red Dot event.

New to the gallery, Alpine Artist Katherine Shaughnessy creates tiny-lighted dioramas, derived from her recent travels. Four years ago she and her husband left their home in the city and took to the open road. They lived out of a campervan which forced the artist to scale down. In her travels the artist documented the passing scenes, each more detailed and obscure than the next, marrying the varied characters to fantastical escapes - twisted and tragic moments captured in miniature. Ms. Shaughnessy received an MFA from the Art Institute of Chicago.

Gallery artist Candace Briceno, also received an MFA from the Art Institute of Chicago, and was recently a selected artist in the “22 to Watch” juried show at the Austin Museum of Art. Ms. Briceno’s “Painting Sculptures” are based on the observation of the extraordinary beauties within landscape; those particular moments that reflect on the fascination of forms, colors and silhouettes. Natural elements, such as flowers, grass, bark and leaves, are sewn into the canvas where one might experience the sensations of smell, touch and their own memory.

The gallery will also feature mixed media weavings by Oregon artist Sandra Preston and paintings by Marfa artist Leslie Wilkes. Recently, and inadvertently Ms. Wilkes rediscovered a coloring method while making paintings based on geometric patterns from the 60’s. Ms Wilkes was intrigued by the way the random color disrupts the effect of the pattern, rendering a kind of controlled chaos. Before this recent exploration into abstraction, Ms. Wilkes was a figurative painter, but like many figurative painters Ms Wilkes began to concentrate on the abstract.

The shows will be on display from April 18th through June 21st 2006. The reception for the artists is April 21 2006 from 7:00 – 9:00pm.