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1926 Photograph of U.S. Base Camp
Incredible 62 inch long panaramic photo of Camp Marfa surfaces on the eBay.

Judd Foundation Website
When I wasn't looking, the Judd Foundation developed a really nice site, full of information. Check it out.

Gym Bond Talk Continues at Jan. 31 Meeting
Photo of Jeff Tweedy, by Fred Covarrubias Jr.

Remember, send us any Tweedy pics you may have. Thx.

Judd Foundation and Christie's Win AICA Honor

U. S. ART CRITICS ASSOCIATION ANNOUNCES RECIPIENTS OF 2005-2006 ANNUAL AWARDS

At a ceremony to be held on February 21, 2007, the International Association of Art Critics/USA will present its 2005/2006 awards to artists, curators, gallerists, critics, scholars, cultural institutions, museums and galleries in recognition of excellence nationally in the conception and realization of exhibitions. The Judd Foundation and Christie's have been recognized for BEST SHOW IN A TEMPORARY OR ALTERNATIVE SPACE for the exhibit, Donald Judd: Selected Works from the Judd Foundation. Presented by Christie's and organized by Judd Foundation, exhibition installation and design by Flavin Judd.

The event will be attended by museum curators, artists, and gallerists from around the country and is open to the public. The United States section of the International Association of Art Critics annually invites its nearly 400 members to nominate and vote for outstanding exhibitions of the previous season. AICA is the only organization to formally recognize excellence in this cultural arena, and the annual AICA Awards are the art-world equivalent to those given by the New York Film Critics Circle and the Drama Desk.

For a full list of the AICA Awards results, click here.

The Marfa.Org ®@ŋd¤m‡zЄ®

Tweedy Pics for the Gallery
Send your photos from the Jeff Tweedy show to us (email address: submit at marfa dot org) and we'll post them on Marfa.Org.

Marfa Blog Entry: concientious objector
Try a Rustic Retreat with Hot Springs
Midland Man Indicted in Marfa Post Bust

20 Tickets Left for Tweedy!

Just got notice that there are 20 tix left for the show (at the time of writing). Contact the Ballroom ASAP if you want 'em. Tel: (432) 729 3600

Highly Anticipated Jeff Tweedy Concert Nears

There is only one more week to wait for the most anticipated concert of the year (and such a young year it is). Jeff Tweedy's performance at Marfa's Liberty Hall promises to be memorable experience for anyone who can make their way in. The show this Sunday the 21st, which is presented by Ballroom Marfa, is completely sold out. Ballroom has this to say about Tweedy on their site:

Jeff Tweedy, indie-rock iconoclast and singer-songwriter of singular contemporary influence, brings his sprawling American vision to West Texas for an evening solo performance on January 21st. Tweedy's name has long been associated with the alternative-country movement he helped spawn in the late 80's with the groundbreaking group Uncle Tupelo. A series of collaborations, projects, and acclaimed releases with his own band Wilco have since revealed an experimental and relentlessly creative spirit that confounds simple categorization. Tweedy's voice, a ghostly summons, and his lyrics - imbued at times with an elemental wit, pain and anxiety, and shimmering in other moments with a strange, cryptic beauty - are uniquely suited to the intimate grandeur of Marfa's Liberty Hall.

Tickets have been popping up on eBay lately here. A pair of tix received 26 bids and ended at a high selling price of 115.00 on January 5th. (20 tix left thru The Ballroom at 10:30 Friday Morning.)

To learn more about Tweedy, I highly recommend this great article at wikipedia.org.

The Marfa.Org ®@ŋd¤m‡zЄ®

Springs Break: Chinati [Fort Worth Star-Telegram]
Day Trips [Austin Chron]
La Entrada project moves forward
Early Marfa Cattle Brands (image)
Marfa Studio of the Arts is evolving. Expect a new vision - coming in Summer of 2007.

Christie's Art Sales Rise 36% to $4.67 Billion
At Christie's contemporary sales in May, highlights included its sale of 35 Minimalist sculptures by Donald Judd for $27.7 million, more than its $20 million high estimate, to benefit the late sculptor's Judd Foundation.

Landscaper Has Self-reliant Approach for TX Gardens
Dallas landscaper Jim Martinez is in such high demand in Marfa, Texas, for his brand of drought-tolerant, self-reliant, native-plant gardens that he's building a second home there so he can sleep in his own bed. Marfa, in far West Texas near Big Bend, is ahead of Dallas and its suburbs in the practice of xeriscape gardening. That is...

Mel Lyons at HWY 90 Gallery

Large painted wood sculptures by artist Mel Lyons will be shown at HWY 90 Gallery in January, launched by a reception at the gallery on Friday, January 5.

Several of Lyons’s colorful, stacked-wood sculptures have been on display outside the gallery since October. Now Lyons’s work will also fill the main exhibition space inside the gallery, along with sketches and drawings related to the sculptural pieces.

Based in Oakland, California, Lyons creates sculptures and other works inspired by the natural environment of Northern California and his interest in perception and creativity. “The art that I make attempts to investigate that which occurs at the interface of phenomenon and perception, the moment of mystery when an object or process becomes, itself, the object of willful interpretation and is first endowed with meaning,” said Lyons.

“In his essay ‘Nature,’ Ralph Waldo Emerson exhorted the reader to ‘build therefore your own world. As fast as you conform your life to the pure idea in your mind, that will unfold its great proportions. A correspondent revolution in things will attend the influx of spirit.’ In this regard, I consider the various series of my sculptural practice to constitute glimpses of a separate imagined place, yet congruent with telling aspects of the larger world around us."

“My work tends to be organized within a strict but not immutable framework, composed of a series of nearly identical elements arranged in a serial manner. I seek to explore the cognitive and aesthetic possibilities within the confines of the enforced boundaries of my own making.”

The reception on January 5 will be from 5 to 7 p.m. The work will remain on display through February 3. Also on display will be work by Marfa artists Gretchen Lee Coles, Keith Lymon, and Leslie Wilkes, as well as work by John Adelman, Jenny Bloomfield, Matthew Riva, and Alan Vannoy.

The Marfa.Org ®@ŋd¤m‡zЄ®

Marfa: Ready for NPR? [Austin Chronicle]
With much hoopla, Marfa Public Radio launched last February, backed by a group of prominent Austinites, including Texas Monthly Editor Evan Smith and KUT general manager Stewart Vanderwilt. Newsman Dan Rather was on hand to ceremoniously flip the switch; the next day Willie Nelson played a benefit concert. For a crowning touch, The New York Times covered the events, focusing on the introduction of public radio to the remote region of West Texas.
But just a few weeks after Marfa Public Radio started transmitting All Things Considered and other programs at low power, the signal was abruptly shut down when it was discovered that the station still didn't have federal approval to broadcast. Ten months later, Marfa Public Radio remains off the air, available only through its Web site, as the Federal Communications Commission continues to review its application, including the premature broadcasts.
Although the project began as a philanthropic effort to bring public radio to an underserved community, local radio veteran Robert Walker, president of Austin-based Matinee Radio LLC, now describes the Marfa experience as something of a nightmare. Matinee is spending hundreds of thousands of dollars to establish the station and plans to donate the signal to the nonprofit public radio entity. "It's a purely altruistic endeavor," said Walker, a board member of KLRU-TV and the Austin Film Society. But the result, he says, has been two years of acrimony and FCC delays, capped by the continued focus in Marfa on the aborted launch. full article

Auctions
2 Tickets to Jeff Tweedy Show on eBay
1900s Unused Marfa Power Co. Stock Certificates
Two Volumes: history of Marfa and Presidio County
10 Dollar Bill Issued in Marfa in 1929
According to the auction: This was the only note issuing national bank in Presidio County.

Christmas Brings Business to Permian Basin Wineries
[Odessa American] The Luz de Estrella Winery in Marfa is celebrating it’s first Christmas with the recently released Big Bend Red wine.Winery owner Linda Armstrong said the wine is spicy, with holiday tastes like cinnamon and nutmeg.“Everybody says, ‘Oh my God, this just tastes like Christmas,’ ” she said.

Art in Review: George Ortman [NYT]
Maybe George Ortman will finally get the attention he deserves. He belongs to that small club of erstwhile neglected artists who share the distinction of having been reviewed admiringly in Arts magazine in the early 1960s by the sculptor (and then critic) Donald Judd. Other members include John Wesley and Lee Bontecou, and to some extent Ken Price; the Judd imprimatur wasn’t the only reason they gained visibility, but it helped.
It is easy to understand Mr. Judd’s interest in Mr. Ortman’s work. The four early reliefs here indicate that... full article

$250,000 Effort Restore Ruidosa Mission

Exploration Co. Proposes 103 New Wells in '07
In the Marfa Basin in West Texas, The Exploration Co. has set aside $3 million for one new well and money for a three-dimensional seismic acquisition program.