October 5, 2022 1019 PM
MARFA — This weekend, the Chinati Foundation presents its 35th Annual Chinati Weekend, to begin on Friday, October 7, and run through Sunday, October 9. The weekend offers a rare opportunity for visitors to wander through the foundation’s entire collection at their own pace, as part of a weekend-long, free, public program that honors a tradition of hospitality inaugurated by Chinati’s founder, the artist Donald Judd.
Chinati Weekend was designed with the intention of giving people the opportunity to participate widely in Chinati’s unique experience of art, architecture and the land. Thirty-five years after the inaugural 1987 weekend, it has become an important annual event and a much-anticipated cultural celebration for the West Texas region, bringing scores of visitors to Marfa for a weekend of free public programs.
“It’s a really special experience to be able to move at your own pace at Chinati, exploring and experiencing freely on your own with lots of other people,” said Ingrid Schaffner, curator at the foundation. “I feel like Chinati Weekend, more than ever, is a big day of museum joy. It’s always joyful, but it’s especially joyful when we open the gates and so many people come to visit.”
A focus of Chinati Weekend 2022 will be the restored John Chamberlain Building, which is part of the newly designed downtown Central Marfa Historic District. At last year’s Chinati Weekend, the building was still undergoing its yearlong restoration — in April, the foundation celebrated the building’s long-awaited reopening. Schaffner said an open house at the building, to take place Saturday from 10 am to 5 pm, will be an “anchoring event” at this year’s Chinati Weekend.
The weekend will kick off on Friday with Made in Marfa, when local makers, purveyors, canteens and community organizations host events around town and throughout the weekend. Chinati’s artist in residence, Jesus Benavente, will hold an open studio at the Locker Plant.
On Saturday, visitors will be able to explore the Chinati collection freely. A major commission by the artist Sarah Crowner, titled “Platform (Blue Green Terracotta for JC),” 2022, will be on view at the special exhibition gallery courtyard, along with an installation of photographs and sculptures by John Chamberlain. Visitors will also have the opportunity to experience the temporary installation of Dan Flavin’s “untitled (in memory of my father, D. Nicholas Flavin),” 1974. At an artist’s talk Saturday at 3 p.m. at the Crowley Theater, Sarah Crowner will discuss her commissioned work within the context of her painting practice.
All will be welcome to join a big community supper Saturday night with ranch fare and mariachi at the Arena. A gymnasium in the 1930s, the Arena continues to serve as a space for hosting on a grand scale, ever since Judd invited the public to the first Chinati Weekend Open House in 1987.
Sunday programming will start at sunrise with an open viewing of Judd’s 15 untitled works in concrete, 1980–84, and 100 untitled works in mill aluminum, 1982–86, as well as Robert Irwin’s “untitled (dawn to dusk),” 2016. The program ends just shy of noon.
More information can be found at chinati.org.
