Perimeter South Trip, Road trip

The Art of Humans and Nature

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Thursday, Oct 20

After “losing” an hour yesterday because of a timezone change I realized I was going to lose another hour today as I traveled across Texas from El Paso to Terlingua, which is near Big Bend National Park. The original plan was to stop at a huge modern art complex in Marfa but that didn’t happen and, in a way, I’m glad I messed up.

I am no modern art enthusiast but when my friend, Bob, pointed out to me that Marfa, Texas was a cultural center that had developed around the art of Donald Judd I did a bit of research and decided I would stop at two sites related to Marfa. The first is an iconic roadside piece called Prada Marfa. This is a Prada “store” in the middle of nowhere with real Prada shoes and bags on display (donated by Prada) but no way to get in. It was created in 2005 and, apart from a couple of incidents of vandalism, the only problem has been for the State of Texas who have had difficulty classifying it. It could not be a billboard or a place of commerce as they would be taxed so it is currently classified as a museum with just one exhibit.

My second planned stop was at the Chinati Foundation which is an art museum devoted to the permanent installation of the art of several artists, including Donald Judd. The museum is located on a decommissioned army base that covers 340 acres and the art is displayed along outside paths and in several separate buildings. A guided tour takes five and a half hours but the public is allowed to do a self guided tour of 10 of Donald Judd’s concrete pieces which only takes 90 minutes to two hours. This was what I intended to do but, despite having entered the coordinates in my GPS and read the directions to the museum on their website, neither method worked in getting me there. The GPS tried to send me down non-existent streets and I never found the sign for the museum that their website referred to. As I said, I am not a modern art enthusiast, so I gave up and went on my way.

That made the day purely driving and, up to that point, it had been a boring affair. However, once I arrived at the border in Presidio and started driving along the Rio Grande valley, that all changed. The best way to understand the geography and see the beauty of this area is to view the map and video here. If I had succeeded in finding the museum in Marfa I think the sun may have been too low to get good views of the Rio Grande valley so it may have been a blessing in disguise.

Prada Marfa is actually in the middle of nowhere about 30 miles from Marfa.prada-marfa-1
Some of the Prada products NOT on saleprada-marfa-2

I included this photo of the back because of the graffiti mid way up on the right (sorry,  an inside teacher reference)prada-marfa-3

Two views of the Rio Grande valley taken from the same spot. This is looking westrio-grande-1
and east.rio-grande-2

4 thoughts on “The Art of Humans and Nature”

  1. Did you go and investigate the famous Marfa lights? That would have been right up your alley…trying to explain it scientifically. Be safe! Google those lights. XOXO. Patricia

    1. I read about them on TripAdvisor but had already booked my hotel in Terlingua so I was not there at night.

      Good to hear from you. I’ll call when I get home.

  2. Glad you saw the Prada Store; shame about Donald Judd. Great views of the Rio Grande,.. envy you the weather and the scenery in that part of the world. I enjoy the videos.. such a contrast to WORK!

    1. Thanks for tipping me off about Marfa. Since the area is so sparsely populated I had already booked my hotel in Terlingua which limited my time.

      Happy to interrupt work and glad you find the videos worth doing that for.

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