Step Into a Permanent Installation of "Specific Objects" at Donald Judd's SoHo Home and Studio

A visit to SoHo’s Judd Foundation is an immersion into the vision of one artist, Donald Judd, who lived and worked in one of the iconic cast-iron buildings in the days when artists were just moving into the then-derelict area.

Many artists have called New York home, but museums of their homes and studios are a rarity here. Even more rare, this one is just as he left it.

[instagram_embedding url = “https://www.instagram.com/p/BQRDprFDlCG/”]

Judd purchased the five-story cast iron building at 101 Spring Street, at the corner of Mercer, in 1968. The building was to be not only a residence for Judd, choreographer Julie Finch and their two children, but a studio and installation laboratory. Opened to the public in 2013, the building is a modern artists’ home and studio, providing a glimpse into the life and ethos of Judd.

[instagram_embedding url = “https://www.instagram.com/p/BPh6oDJD9TT/”]

Judd started out as an artist working with more traditional styles of painting but by the early 1960s he had moved towards the abstract and minimalist. He also began working with three-dimensional forms, referring to them not as sculptures but as “specific objects.”

[instagram_embedding url = “https://www.instagram.com/p/BN4VQwbAvMF/”]

In a 1989 essay, Judd wrote of his purchase of the building that his requirement was “the building be useful for living and working and more importantly, more definitely, be a space in which to install work of mine and others.” He changed little about the building, keeping the open spaces and deciding “each floor should have one purpose: sleeping, eating, working.”

[instagram_embedding url =”https://www.instagram.com/p/BQrYLh5jbJ3/”]

After his death in 1994, the Judd Foundation took on the project of restoring the building and the challenge of opening it as a museum while maintaining Judd’s vision. The goal of the interior restoration and interpretation was to present the site as it was in 1994.

Personal effects, furniture and objects are installed and reflect Judd’s purposeful placement. He said about the space that “everything from the first was intended to be thoroughly considered and to be permanent.”

[instagram_embedding url= “https://www.instagram.com/p/BNzOygRjEeM/”]

Visitors can also see works by other artists Judd incorporated into the space, including Dan Flavin, John Chamberlain, Frank Stella and Claes Oldenburg.

Tours of the space, which sell out quickly, are led by artist guides. Groups are kept small to allow for navigating narrow staircases to the several floors open to the public. Guides explore Judd’s work as well as that of other artists shown.

[instagram_embedding url = “https://www.instagram.com/p/ag0wtkjcdX/”]

The ground floor, once a work space, is now a gallery, open for free to the public when special exhibits are mounted by the Judd Foundation. More of Judd’s installations can be viewed in Marfa, Texas, where he started purchasing properties in 1973.

[instagram_embedding url = “https://www.instagram.com/p/tdzsjPqfN3/”]

How to Visit
Address: 101 Spring Street, New York, N.Y.
Hours: The ground floor is open to the public when temporary exhibitions are installed. Check the Judd Foundation website for details. The upper floors are accessible by guided tours only and tickets must be purchased in advanced. There are three tours a day Tuesday through Friday and four tours on Saturdays.
Admission: $24 for adults, $11.50 for students and seniors. Children under 12 are not permitted on tours. If you are an artist living and working in New York City, free tours are available.
Directions: Subway N or R to Prince Street, 6 to Spring Street, B, D, F or M to Broadway Lafayette.

Related Stories

• Peek Into the Uncannily Well-Preserved Home of a Prosperous Early New York Family
• Persian Fantasy Meets Hudson River School at 19th Century Painter’s Dream Home
• The Brownstone Where a New York-Born President Got Fit

Email tips@brownstoner.com with further comments, questions or tips. Follow Brownstoner on Twitter and Instagram, and like us on Facebook.