Jett’s Grill
I started the day with a few bites of chicken salad. We then drove to Chinati to view the Robert Irwin installation. We then bought a coffee and a chai at the local coffee jointing drove to the Judd center in town for a 10:15 tour of the block, which was Judd’s house and where he installed some of his works and where his library is located. Suzette said that Judd was a hoarder when she saw a room filled with piles of periodicals Judd saved that are still there. There were two large rooms filled with lovely Judd works.
The installation and library are kept in the condition when he left in 1993, shortly before he died of cancer. In fact most of the Judd houses and constructed elements seem to have been preserved as he left them. A sort of moment in time that will never change.
After the tour of Judd’s house we went to the St. George Hotel for lunch. Suzette ordered a thick Cream of butternut Squash soup and I ordered the Friday lunch special of fried catfish with Cole slaw and a salad of instead of fried potatoes. I liked the catfish, which actually had some chewiness. After lunch we went to the Wrong gallery and I bought the Russell Lee picture of Psychedelic music.
We then walked across the street at 2:00 to the Judd foundation and then up the street to the bank building he bought to hold some of his collection of art and furniture. It contained lots of art that Judd apparently traded for, including five or six Josef Albers, an early Larry Bell, architectural studies by Judd, and lots of vintage furniture from the Bauhaus.
We then walked up the street to two other residences Judd bought to house his early work from the 1950’s and early 60’s and the rest of his collection of19th century Swedish furniture and some interesting Rudolph Schindler furniture made for Frank Lloyd Wright.
Finally, we walked to the end of the block to a converted grocery store that was where he worked out the designs. Although there were several lovely pieces such as a copper frame with green acrylic inserts, most of the tables were filled with pens, notes, and even a metal book holder. Pretty uninteresting.
As Suzette said, “Judd verged on being a hoarder.”
After the walking tour downtown we returned to the room to rest until 5:00 when we dressed for dinner.
We met Anne Adams at Jett’s Grille in the Hotel Paisano, a historic Trost and Trost building where the cast and crew for the film “Giant” stayed. The menu was somewhat limited but more than adequate for us. We started with an appetizer trio of corn chips with three separate bowls, guacamole, a purée of black bean, and salsa. Anne and Suzette ordered salads with chicken and salmon respectively and I ordered Penne with bacon. My pasta was tossed in a light cream and tomato sauce with strips of parmesan cheese and chunks of fried bacon; quite a pleasant dish.
After we said goodnight to Anne who had to drive back to Fort Davis, we drove out to the Marfa mystery light viewing area and we thought we saw there light. We also looked at h night sky with Suzette’s binoculars.
My conclusion is Marfa would be a ghost had it not been for Donald Judd. Anne agreed heartily.
We returned to the room and watched a bit of TV and went to sleep.
Bon Appetit
No comments:
Post a Comment