Architects are fascinated with the sculpture and furniture of Donald Judd, so the title alone of his show at the Paula Cooper Gallery in Chelsea (Works in Granite, Cor-ten, Plywood, and Enamel on Aluminum) should make them palpitate. Architects appreciate the vernacular materials and rigorous form-making of Judd’s work, and the way the objects flirt with architectural language without really being architecture, so that they seem strangely attenuated physically and syntactically.  

But when seeing Judd’s work in person, two aspects lost in the adoration quickly become apparent.  First, the works are immaculately crafted.  The plywood Judd uses is the finest grade, sanded super smooth, and joined in ways that the most experienced carpenter would admire.  The steel plates he uses are finished with a delicacy that Richard Serra could not even imagine.  Second, the works are strangely (and disappointingly, I think) non-architectural.  Most are too small to enter and too large to pick up, hovering in the nether-region between furniture and building.  They’re loaded with spatial suggestion but ultimately sculptures.