Marfa is a city in the high desert of the Trans-Pecos in far West Texas, United States, between the Davis Mountains and Big Bend National Park, at an elevation of 4685 feet.

The Marfa Army Air Field served as a training facility for several thousand pilots during World War II, including the American actor Robert Sterling, before closing in 1945.

The base was also used as the training ground for many of the United States Army's chemical mortar battalions.Marfa experienced economic issues after the war ended and after a drought impaired agricultural output.

Artist Donald Judd arrived in 1973 and began buying properties to renovate, which resulted in bohemian interest in the community.

After renting summer houses for a few years, he bought two large hangars and some smaller buildings and began to install his art permanently.

In 1976, he bought the first of two ranches that became his primary places of residence, continuing a long love affair with the desert landscape surrounding Marfa.

Judd's vision was to house large collections of individual artists' work on permanent display, as a sort of antimuseum.

Judd believed the prevailing model of many museums, where various art exhibits are shown for limited times, does not allow the viewer an understanding of the artist or their work as they had intended.

Since its inauguration in 1986, Chinati has held an open-house event that attracts visitors from around the world to visit Marfa's art.

The city is also 37 miles (60 km) from Prada Marfa, a pop art exhibit, and is home to Cobra Rock Boot Company and The Wrong Store.

The festival brings together a diversity of emerging and established artists and musicians to work creatively and collaboratively across music, film, and visual arts contexts.

The festival is inherently embedded in the landscape of Far West Texas and deeply engaged with Marfa's cultural history and present-day community.

[20] The facility's studio galleries host artists who desire to exhibit work in the region at a premier venue.

Building 98 is located at historic Fort D. A. Russell; it is the home of Marfa's German POW murals.

[23] Presidio County has built a viewing station 9 miles east of town on US 67 near the site of the old air base.

[citation needed] In August 2006, two films were partially shot in Marfa: There Will Be Blood and No Country for Old Men.

[27] Morley Safer presented a 60 Minutes segment in on August 4, 2013, titled "Marfa, Texas, the Capital of Quirkiness.

Apparently, the writers and production staff knew nothing about the area of Marfa, Texas when filming this episode.

"Marfa" is the eighth track on Texas symphonic rock band Mother Falcon's second studio album, You Knew.

[38] The former is a weekly newspaper covering the areas of Marfa, Fort Davis, Presidio, and far West Texas.

As of 2019, however, the Marfa Police Department has been re-established, and five officers, including a chief and lieutenant, oversee law enforcement within the city limits.

[43] The present library building was donated to the City of Marfa in 1973 by the first chairperson, Laura Bailey, and her husband Bishop.

Amtrak's Sunset Limited, which operates between New Orleans and Los Angeles three days a week, passes through the city, but does not stop; the nearest station is located in Alpine, 26 mi (42 km) northeast.

[44] Commercial air service is available at either Midland International Air and Space Port (IATA: MAF, ICAO: KMAF, FAA LID: MAF) or El Paso International Airport (IATA: ELP, ICAO: KELP, FAA LID: ELP).