Donald Judd: A good chair is a good chair

As an architect, designer and artist, Donald Judd's work changed the course of modern sculpture and is often cited as embodying some of the greatest elements of the Minimalist movement (though he himself hated the term, preferring instead to describe his work as ‘the simple expression of complex thought’).

His first real forays into furniture design came later in his career, when he was already an established artist and architect (he cites earlier, less successful experiments in his 1993 essay, It's Hard to Find a Good Lamp, where he recounts the difficulty he had in reconciling a work of art with a functional object), and were born out of a practical need: to furnish a small house in the middle of nowhere in Texas, where he had moved with his two children. What began with two children's beds burgeoned into a range of simple, practical furniture, initially in rough pine and later in sheet metal, that sold successfully around the globe.

A good chair is a good chair is the first major exhibition in the UK devoted entirely to Judd's furniture - which he was insistent should always be seen as real furniture rather than 'artist's' furniture - and the show features a number of prototypes constructed by Judd himself, including a child's desk from 1977 and set of bookshelves from 1968.

A range of Judd-designed furniture will be available to purchase through the Ikon Gallery shop during the exhibition (until November 14, 2010).