In the early seventies Judd started making annual trips to Baja California with his family. He was affected by the clean, empty desert and this strong attachment to the land would remain with him for the rest of his life. In 1971 he rented a house in Marfa, Texas, where he would later buy numerous buildings and acquired over 32,000 acres (130 km2) of ranch land, collectively known as Ayala de Chinati. During this decade, Judd's art increased in scale and complexity. He started making room sized installations that made the spaces themselves his playground and the viewing of his art a visceral, physical experience. Throughout the 1970s and 1980s he produced radical work that eschewed the classical European ideals of representational sculpture. Judd believed that art should not represent anything, that it should unequivocally stand on its own and simply exist. His aesthetic followed his own strict rules against illusion and falsity, producing work that was clear, strong and definite. Supported by a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts, Northern Kentucky University commissioned Judd with a aluminum sculpture that was unveiled in the middle of the school's campus in 1976. Another commission, "Untitled" (1984), a three-part sculpture out of concrete with steel reinforcements, was installed at Laumeier Sculpture Park.