One Donald Judd Woodcut

a donald judd woodcut is a horizontal rectangle of solid blue on a sheet of the same ratio
Donald Judd, Untitled, 1988, woodcut, 60 x 80cm., ed.25+10AP, this example is in the Fisher Collection at SFMOMA

I saw this Donald Judd woodcut on its own and was so shocked by its monochromeness I didn’t even recognize it. All I could see was the blue monochrome screenprint edition Derek Jarman may or may not have completed for the letterpress edition of the script for Blue.

I’d wrestled with trying to fix that only partially realized print by remaking it with the aspect ratio of the film, only to get stuck trying to figure out which version of the film to use. And maybe the Judd felt like a Jarman because it’s printed on 60 x 80 cm sheets, which is the same ratio of Jarman’s print—though his was apparently vertical—and which is also the same 4:3 aspect ratio of 1990s TV.

a suite of ten donald judd woodcut prints, five solid horizontal rectangles with 0, 1, or 2 thin lines running horizontally, or vertically, and five inverse, with blue rectangular frames around an unprinted void, but with 0, 1, or two horizontal or vertical lines cutting across them.
Donald Judd, Untitled, 1988, 10 woodblock prints, 60 x 80cm, ed. 25+10AP, this set from SFMOMA

But none of this, I think, is Judd’s concern at all. This woodcut was published by Brooke Alexander as part of a portfolio, and that’s how I’ve always only ever seen it. The series of ten prints indexes a rectangle cut by 0, 1 or 2 lines; horizontal or vertical; and positive or negative. The portfolio was made in three colors: cadmium red, blue, or ivory black, in editions of 25+10 aps (each).

But now in this context, it becomes hard to see the one solid print as anything other than a part of a series, the precursor state, the base, for the cuts to come.