A Texas Transformation: If You Like Art, Get Yourself to Marfa

Free meals for all the visitors.

Credit: Rob Forbes

One of the most singular and remarkable annual art festivals in the United States takes place October 7-8 in the unlikely setting of Marfa, Texas, and is centered on that small town's Chinati and Judd [1]d foundations. For one afternoon, the town's main street is transformed into an al fresco dining room for a gathering of thousands that includes international artists, collectors and design aficionados from all over the country, and architects and students from Austin. The free meal for everyone on hand is an appropriate high point for an event that deserves to be on the destination list for anyone who needs a quick, exhilarating hit of art and design inspiration without going overseas.

Marfa is about three hours by car from El Paso, and any discussion of the town today must begin with a look at the life and work of Donald Judd [2], the minimalist painter and sculptor who made it a home for both his works and his family beginning in the early 1970s. Judd literally took over the town, buying many buildings and spaces to create a kind of living gallery for his artistic ideas.

Since attending the annual Open House for the first time some years ago, I've been overwhelmed by the positive effect one artist and cultural following can have on a community. An analogy here is with Frank Gehry's Guggenheim Museum [3], in Bilbao, Spain, where a museum's influence has served to bring recognition -- and one million visitors a year -- to a weary, old industrial port. When Judd cast his visionary eye in Marfa's direction, the town's economy had been skidding since the closing of two military facilities after World War II, but Judd's influence and his fans have restored a vivid and sustainable economy.

Local hangout the Marfa Book Company.

Credit: Rob Forbes

To try summing up Judd's work in a few words would be as superficial as describing Texas by saying, "It's big." And generalizing about the experience of the annual "Judd-fest" is equally daunting. This two-day series of lectures, gallery shows, building tours, and social events is made especially affecting and memorable by the environment and context Judd helped create. At the core of the experience is the belief that context truly matters for art and design. Marfa is a provocative alternative to seeing works in the typical urban environment and gallery space. It changes your perspective and makes you think differently.

Aside from the displays for the festival, the work of Judd, omnipresent and a permanent part of the landscape, takes the shape of concrete forms in fields, unique doors and gates, building interiors, furniture, dog runs, libraries, and more.

We learned details of Marfa's amazing transformation during an interview with Robert Halpern, publisher and editor in chief of the local newspaper, The Big Bend Sentinel, who pointed out that the Judd influence, along with increasing awareness of minimalist art, has also brought attention to the environment in general, and that the community at large welcomes the infusion of outside ideas. To see a town that has not been artificially commercialized is a reassuring experience in itself. Witnessing cultural preservation, art, and contemporary ideas coexisting with a kind of seamless comfort is an uncommon pleasure. And this in Texas, where you see images of Dallas Cowboys cheerleaders sharing shelf space with Judd monographs at the local hangout, the Marfa Book Company.

The Judd Chair.

Credit: Rob Forbes

The images that reflect the Marfa experience most accurately are those that relate to the environment and architecture, those that help give a sense of place. The connection between the art and its context are explicit and intentional in Judd's work and at the core of his thinking. You look less at objects than at space and context through a uniquely Juddian lens. This is much easier to do in the relatively uncluttered spaces of Marfa than in a Manhattan gallery or museum.

You also come to expect the unexpected in Marfa. At last year's Open House, the range of art on display included an exhibition of Pop Art practitioner John Chamberlain's early foam sculptures. There were installations of minimalist painter Dan Flavin's work, and student and professional exhibits and installations were peppered throughout the area. It may not be an exaggeration to say Marfa now rivals some of the great cultural destination around the world and is --so far-- refreshingly free of kitsch. Getting there is a treat in itself; the drive from El Paso treats you to landscape as unique and contemplative as Judd's work itself. The trip, and the town, will rock you out of the museum mind-set.

Rob Forbes is the founder of the design company Design Within Reach [4]. This article was adapted from his online newsletter.