Rainer Judd and Julie Finch, left; exterior of the Judd buildingIt was an intimate affair catered by Giorgio Deluca (co-founder of Dean & Deluca), one of Judd's long-time friends. Guests including Kiki Smith and David Zwirner noshed on steak frites and chocolate cake, and were treated to a bagpipe performance. (Evidently, Judd was a lover of the bagpipe.) Later, Judd's daughter Rainer offered friends a tour of her childhood home, which features works by Marchel Duchamp and Frank Stella in addition to Judd's own minimalist fixtures.
Second floor (top) and fourth floor of the house. The event marked the first public outreach for donations toward the $25 million restoration project. Barbara Hunt McLanahan, the foundation's executive director, explained the expensive undertaking: "There are 1,300 cast iron fixtures in the building and something like 69 windows. Each cast iron piece will be taken off by hand, taken to a foundry, sandblasted and then examined to see if we can restore it."
Bagpiper at the partyJudd was very particular about his SoHo space, which he viewed as a "permanent installation." Former wife Julie Finch said she got so fed up with squeezing four people onto a Mies chair that she saved up her own money and bought a brown wide wale corduroy sofa at Bloomingdales. "Judd wasn't pleased, to say the least," she recalled.
101 Spring Street, New York, Second Floor. Judd FurnitureTM © Judd Foundation. Photo credit: Rainer Judd.
101 Spring Street, New York, Fourth Floor. Judd Art/Work © Judd Foundation. VAGA, NYC. Judd FurnitureTM © Judd Foundation Photo credit: Rainer Judd.
