Issue link: http://papercitymagazine.uberflip.com/i/734526
M arfa, the isolated high-desert town in West Texas that's famous for being famous, is the unlikely locale for an internationally renowned contem- porary art culture. Minimalist artist Donald Judd, who moved there in 1971, is credited with igniting the Marfa obsession, and through the decades, artists, architects, interior designers, curators, and gallerists have flocked to its secluded fold. This month, a new book, Marfa Modern: Artistic Interiors of the West Texas High Desert (Monacelli Press, $50), provides a glimpse into how Marfa's unusual, unexpected creative class lives and designs. Former Metropolitan Home editor Helen Thompson and Austin-based photographer Casey Dunn — a frequent contrib- utor to PaperCity — spent two years shooting 21 houses in Marfa, including an art-filled one owned by Dallas landscape architect Jim Martinez and his partner, Jim Fissel. Judd's stringent standards for spare and beautiful architecture, furniture, and interiors seem to have influenced the dwellings, which incorporate humble local materials. Many are ingenious conversions: a defunct Texaco service station, a former jail, and Houston designer Barbara Hill's sleek space, which was recreated from a dance hall. Others took Judd's lead by converting warehouses into homes, while hotelier Liz Lambert (Hotel San Jose in Austin) refurbished Marfa's 1950s-era Thunderbird Hotel and created El Cosmico nomadic hotel and campground with tepees, tents, and yurts. Houston architect Carlos Jiménez designed a spectacular ranch house situated on 2,000 acres; as well as Marfa's chic new Hotel St. George. Rebecca Sherman A NEW BOOK CELEBRATES MARFA'S MODERNIST SIDE. Clockwise from top left: A house designed by architect Kristen Bonkemeyer and the late interior designer Marlys Tokerud. Austin-based hotelier Liz Lambert's modernist bath house. Landscape designer Jim Martinez's house. Designed by Jamey Garza, an event space was turned into a private home. OFF GRID P H OTO G R A P H Y C A S E Y D U N N 58