NEW YORK – Craig F. Starr Gallery is pleased to present Donald Judd: Cadmium Red. Speaking about this color in an interview with John Coplans, Judd said, "I like the color and like the quality of cadmium red light." The exhibition will focus on his work in this particular hue and will take place from February 3 through March 31, 2012. A catalogue of the exhibition, which includes an essay by independent art historian Jane Panetta, will be available.

On view are thirteen Cadmium Red works executed between 1961 and 1990. Highlights include a wall sculpture, woodblock, and editioned work with hand-painted elements. The sculpture, from 1962-1990 and comprised of sandpaint, glass, and plywood, is 46 x 46 x 4 inches. The circular red-tinted glass element in the middle of the piece allows the viewer to peer beyond the rough, sandy surface, to the smooth grain of the plywood.

Donald Judd's works occupy a central position in minimalist art. Unlike many of his peers who shied away from the emotive capabilities of color, Judd viewed it as a way to further emphasize the essential elements of form and material. As a sculptor, printmaker, and writer his legacy is one of simplicity, the paring down and reduction of art to the basic forms of material, space, and color - and Judd had a penchant for the color red. He worked within a self-restricted realm of sculptural and printed forms, and color was a means to vary the exploration of this practice. He selected cadmium red because of its ability to absorb light and highlight hard edges. He explained, "And the red... seems to be the only color that really makes an object sharp and defines its contours and angles." As Panetta explains in her essay:

"In relation to space, red is visually powerful in commanding one's attention within an environment, or on the page; a form in any other color would likely not hold the space so assuredly. Color, and cadmium red specifically, augmented Judd's defining interests and allowed him to both draw upon his diverse sources and challenge the prevailing context in which he was working. For Judd, an element such as cadmium red was a crucial vehicle in the development of his historically informed yet ambitious practice."