Judy Pfaff is an innovator, acclaimed for her groundbreaking work in installation art during the 1970s. At a time when minimalism was prized, she approached spaces with maximal intention, filling galleries with maze-like accumulations of materials in linear and geometric shapes. Some have called it “painting in space.” Pfaff’s works on paper, like the one in the Portland Art Museum collection, have a similar quality of high energy as many pieces of cut and collaged paper fill the surface. A dynamic range of bright colors and reflective surfaces stimulate the vision and capture the attention through an array of details. Untitled is currently on view on the second floor of the Jubitz Center for Modern and Contemporary Art and even though it’s smaller in stature than other works nearby, it packs a visual punch. I hope you’ll take a close look on your next visit!
—Sara Krajewski, The Robert and Mercedes Eichholz Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art
Judy Pfaff (American, born 1946), Untitled, 1981. Contact paper and paper. Museum Purchase: Funds provided by the National Endowment for the Arts and Contemporary Art Council, 81.52 © Judy Pfaff
