Marfa: Soho Southwest

The first sign that Marfa is not your ordinary small Texas town is on the long drive towards it.  

On the side of the road, really in the middle of nowhere,  is a tiny Prada store.  It’s actually a “pop architectural land art project” by two German artists and was built in 2005 with real Prada shoes and bags on display, but no real door.  It was supposed to eventually disintegrate into the landscape.  A comment on consumerism?  The first night it was finished vandals broke in and took everything.  Now the handbags have no bottoms and the shoes are all right feet, there’s a security system, and the building is repaired regularly to keep it “alive”.  Suggestions for a new “Artists Statement” welcome.

Ever since Beyoncé posted a photo in front of the store it’s become a Destination.  We saw a trio of young women who made the pilgrimage for selfies as we passed by.  I resisted the urge.

 Even the Simpsons couldn’t resist.

Despite not knowing a single Beyoncé song, this tiny town in the middle of southwest nowhere has long been on Dan’s bucket list.  He’s always admired the work of minimalist artist Donald Judd, who decamped here from Soho in the early 70s.  He was looking for more space to display his large work and the wide open landscape with mountains in the distance appealed to him, as did the fine architecture of this old watering stop on the rail route between El Paso and San Antonio.  

The old grain silo by the railroad and a seriously hip bar which we were too old to bother with.

Much like Soho in the 60s, buildings could be had for a song, and he started out buying an old grocery store.  He went on to purchase lots of land and more buildings and soon other artists followed.

Judd’s work in the landscape.

Inside one of the old army depots he bought.

We saw this Warhol piece but weren’t allowed to take photos - same with Judd’s indoor work.  What’s the point of that I wonder? It’s not like you can’t find photos online.

Marfa is an intriguing little town to look at, with beautiful buildings repurposed into galleries or homes, and a quite grand city hall and hotel, as well as murals just about everywhere.  There are trendy stores that seem to be straight out of Soho with a slight whiff of the Southwest.  I swear we saw a couple of Brooklyn hipsters  strolling along but they could have been Hollywood types - both are well represented here apparently.  There’s a lot of money being spent in Marfa.

The old Safeway that was Judd’s first studio.

Former gas station, now a home.

Lobby of the rather lovely Hotel Paisano.

Okay, this one definitely tipped the scale towards pretentious.

Did someone say “pretentious”?

Before Judd moved here and put Marfa on the art word’s map it was best known as the setting for the Oscar winning movie Giant. Filmed in 1955 it starred Rock Hudson, Elizabeth Taylor and James Dean in his last role.  

The production swept into town and it was the most exciting thing to happen - ever.  Locals were invited to spend all day on the set and many became extras.  Hudson and Taylor were said to be aloof but Dean was friendly and approachable and used to bring out buckets of ice cold Cokes for the little kids.

The movie is based on Edna Ferber’s book and tells the story of several generations of a wealthy Texas ranching family, but it also deals with the appalling treatment of Mexican Americans in the Southwest which was very controversial back then.  The director, George Stevens, was pressured to remove certain scenes but he refused.  He’d been granted a rare creative control over the film and he stuck to his guns.  Texans were no fans of the book and feared the movie would paint them in a bad light.  Well, sure, with good reason it would seem.  In one scene Taylor observes that the U.S. stole Texas from Mexico, much to the horror of Hudson.

Huge installation on the outskirts of town.

Giant has some unexpected camera angles and unusual use of shadows - quite innovative at the time.  Martin Scorsese admits to watching it at least 40 times.  So, if it’s good enough for Marty, I say give it a go.  At over 3 hours you’ll probably need some popcorn.  And wait till you see Dennis Hopper who looks like he was just bar mitzvahed.

Other movies have been filmed in and around Marfa, including No Country For Old Men and There Will Be Blood, but there’s another reason the town is firmly on some people’s map: the Marfa Mystery Lights.  

These strange flashing lights have been making random appearances for over a hundred years.  There’s a fancy viewing station and platform just south of town and an annual festival which attracts, well, paranormal enthusiasts I suppose you’d call them.  Maybe those weren’t Hipsters after all.

I got very excited when I saw something strange in the sky as we approached the town - a dark speck just above the horizon that seemed to hover there. Forever.  Not moving.  Dan, I’m sorry to say, showed a very unbecoming lack of curiosity but managed not to laugh when my first encounter with a UFO turned out to be a tethered Border Patrol Surveillance Blimp.

For a tiny town in the huge state of Texas Marfa has a lot going for it even if it’s bordering on becoming a bit precious and self-referential.  But I can see why Judd moved here and why the landscape and town appealed to him.  The sky, the light, the horizon, the space.  And the sunrise.