Donald Judd sculpture to be restored, resited

The next time anyone sees the “Untitled” sculpture by Donald Judd on the Western Washington University campus, it’ll be in an entirely different spot.

The sculpture, part of Western’s Outdoor Sculpture Collection, was removed from its longtime home on the Old Main lawn in north campus this morning, and when it returns it will likely be sited in the flag plaza near the Academic Instructional Center on south campus.

The sculpture, which since 1983 has sat on a concrete pad near Old Main, will spend about a year in Seattle while funds are secured for repair of the sculpture. Standing water in the area of the Old Main lawn has sped the destruction of the base of the sculpture, despite the care taken to maintain the sculpture in its 30 years.

Sarah Clark-Langager, director of the Western Gallery, which manages the Outdoor Sculpture Collection, has applied for a grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services to pay for the restoration. If the grant is approved, restoration of the sculpture would begin in October of 2014, and it would be returned to campus as soon as that process is complete.

The flag plaza at the main entrance to south campus provides a better location for the sculpture, Clark-Langager says, because it’s drier and windier.

Constructed of COR-TEN “weathering” steel, the “Untitled” sculpture is roughly 7 feet high, 7 feet wide and 14 feet long. It weighs roughly 11,000 pounds.

The Outdoor Sculpture Collection is considered one of the 10 most acclaimed university collections in the United States. It represents 29 works by important American, international and Northwest artists from the last half of the 20th Century.

Matthew Anderson
Western Today editor
The 'Untitled' sculpture by Donald Judd, which has sat on the Old Main lawn since its installation there in 1983, is loaded to a flatbed truck Thursday morning, Dec. 5, in preparation for a move to Seattle for restoration and eventual resiting on south ca
The 'Untitled' sculpture by Donald Judd, which has sat on the Old Main lawn since its installation there in 1983, is loaded to a flatbed truck Thursday morning, Dec. 5, in preparation for a move to Seattle for restoration and eventual resiting on south ca
The 'Untitled' sculpture by Donald Judd, which has sat on the Old Main lawn since its installation there in 1983, is prepared for loading to a flatbed truck Thursday morning, Dec. 5, for a move to Seattle for restoration and eventual resiting on south cam
The 'Untitled' sculpture by Donald Judd, which has sat on the Old Main lawn since its installation there in 1983, is loaded to a flatbed truck Thursday morning, Dec. 5, in preparation for a move to Seattle for restoration and eventual resiting on south ca