Donald Judd (1928–1994) was one of the most significant American artists of the post-war period. His oeuvre has come to define what is widely referred to as Minimalist art. The unaffected, straightforward quality of his work demonstrates his strong interest in color, form, material, and space. With the intention of creating art that could assume a direct material and physical presence without recourse to grand philosophical statements, he eschewed the classical ideals of representational sculpture to create a rigorous visual vocabulary that sought clear and definite objects as its primary mode of articulation. Born in 1928 in Excelsior Springs, Missouri, Judd served in the United States Army in Korea, then attended The College of William and Mary, Williamsburg, Virginia; the Art Students League, New York; and Columbia University, New York, where he received a B.S. in Philosophy, cum laude, in 1953. His first solo exhibition was in 1957 at the Panoras Gallery, New York, the same year he began graduate studies in art history at Columbia University. Over the next decade, Judd worked as a critic for ARTnews, Arts Magazine, and Art International; his subsequent theoretical writings on art and exhibition practices would prove to be some of his most important and lasting legacies. Judd’s work has been exhibited internationally since the 1960s and is included in numerous museum collections. A survey exhibition of the artist’s work was organized by the Tate Modern, London, in 2004 and traveled to the K20 Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen, Düsseldorf, and Kunstmuseum Basel. Permanent installations of the artist’s work can be found at Judd Foundation spaces in New York City, at 101 Spring Street, and Marfa, Texas, along with the neighboring Chinati Foundation.