Donald Judd's Aluminium Boxes Are Moving for the First Time in 40 Years
This autumn, every one of the 100 aluminium boxes Donald Judd installed in two former artillery sheds in Marfa, Texas, will be moved for the first time in more than four decades. The Chinati Foundation, the museum Judd established in 1986 on a 340-acre campus in the Chihuahuan Desert, is beginning a full restoration of the buildings that house them. The works — collectively titled 100 Untitled Works in Mill Aluminium, 1982–1986 — have sat in place since Judd arranged them in the twin sheds, former US Army structures he acquired in the late 1970s as part of a larger purchase of Fort D.A. Russell The Art Newspaper.
The move is about the buildings, not the art. Conservators need to address infrastructure problems in the sheds — ageing glass, drainage, roofing — and the boxes must be lifted and relocated to allow that work to proceed. The Artillery Sheds were listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2025 as part of the Donald Judd Historic District, giving the restoration an added layer of oversight The Art Newspaper.
The team assembled is unusually deep. Schaum Architects leads the design, working alongside Alfred Lippincott, who partnered with Judd on the original fabrication in the 1980s. The Getty Conservation Institute — involved with the site for some 40 years — contributes environmental expertise, alongside engineers, climate specialists, conservators and landscape designers The Art Newspaper; Getty Conservation Institute.
The restoration plan is built around a principle: do not contradict Judd's intentions for the space. Judd wrote in 1987 that "the best is that which remains where it was painted, placed or built." Accordingly, Chinati has ruled out installing conventional climate-control systems — the kind of mechanical heating and cooling most museums rely on. Instead, the sheds will get energy-efficient glass, passive air-circulation systems to reduce temperatures, rainwater harvesting for drainage, and newly planted native grasses sustained by that harvested water The Art Newspaper.
For visitors who have made the journey to Marfa — a remote town in west Texas that has become a pilgrimage site for art lovers — the sheds are the heart of the experience. The Chinati Foundation's campus contains 34 buildings with permanent installations by artists including Dan Flavin, Roni Horn, Carl Andre and Robert Irwin The Art Newspaper. A building in central Marfa dedicated to John Chamberlain was the first to undergo restoration, in 2022.
The current project is part of a capital campaign called "Art as Intended," which funds the Artillery Sheds restoration and the foundation's long-term sustainability. Ahead of the full restoration, Chinati has already been running an annual maintenance programme for the sheds' gutters and roofs, including cleaning and recoating treatments. The foundation received a $1.25 million grant from the Startsmall foundation to support the Chamberlain Building restoration Chinati Foundation.
Caitlin Murray, the Chinati Foundation's executive director, is overseeing the project. The foundation presented an exhibition titled Art in Context in late 2025 that illustrated the preservation efforts underway Glasstire.
The sheds were originally purchased in 1978 from Godbold, Inc. by the Dia Art Foundation, which funded Judd's renovation of the buildings to exhibit the aluminium works. When Judd established Chinati in 1986, the works and their buildings became part of the permanent collection Chinati Foundation.
What makes this stand out is the scale of the disruption and the care being taken to minimise it. Moving 100 aluminium boxes — each fabricated to Judd's exacting specifications — is no small logistical feat in a town two hours from the nearest major airport. That the foundation is choosing passive environmental systems over conventional museum climate control signals a commitment to preserving not just the objects but the conditions Judd designed them for.
