Sol LeWitt: Difference between revisions
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===Sculpture=== |
===Sculpture=== |
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In the early 1960s, LeWitt first began to create his "structures," a term he used to describe his three-dimensional work.<ref name="barbaramathesgallery">[http://www.barbaramathesgallery.com/exhibitions/2011_4_sol-lewitt-structures-and-dra/?view=pressrelease Sol LeWitt: Structures and Drawings, April 28 - June 30, 2011] Barbara Mathes Gallery, New York.</ref> His frequent use of open, modular structures originates from the [[cube]], a form that influenced the artist’s thinking from the time that he first became an artist. After creating an early body of work made up of closed form wooden objects, heavily-lacquered by hand, in the mid-1960s he “decided to remove the skin altogether and reveal the structure.” This skeletal form, the radically simplified open cube, became a basic building block of the artist’s three-dimensional work. In the mid-1960s, LeWitt began to work with the open cube: twelve equal linear elements connected at eight corners to form a skeletal structure. From 1969, he would conceive many of his modular structures on a large scale, to be constructed in aluminum or steel by industrial fabricators. Each of his large open cubes is 63 inches high, approximately eye level. At this scale, the artist introduced bodily proportion to his fundamental sculptural unit.<ref name="sollewitt.publicartfund">[http://sollewitt.publicartfund.org/exhibition/# Sol LeWitt: Structures 1965-2006, May 24 – December 2, 2011] Public Art Fund, New York.</ref> |
In the early 1960s, LeWitt first began to create his "structures," a term he used to describe his three-dimensional work.<ref name="barbaramathesgallery">[http://www.barbaramathesgallery.com/exhibitions/2011_4_sol-lewitt-structures-and-dra/?view=pressrelease Sol LeWitt: Structures and Drawings, April 28 - June 30, 2011] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110519135449/http://www.barbaramathesgallery.com/exhibitions/2011_4_sol-lewitt-structures-and-dra/?view=pressrelease |date=May 19, 2011 }} Barbara Mathes Gallery, New York.</ref> His frequent use of open, modular structures originates from the [[cube]], a form that influenced the artist’s thinking from the time that he first became an artist. After creating an early body of work made up of closed form wooden objects, heavily-lacquered by hand, in the mid-1960s he “decided to remove the skin altogether and reveal the structure.” This skeletal form, the radically simplified open cube, became a basic building block of the artist’s three-dimensional work. In the mid-1960s, LeWitt began to work with the open cube: twelve equal linear elements connected at eight corners to form a skeletal structure. From 1969, he would conceive many of his modular structures on a large scale, to be constructed in aluminum or steel by industrial fabricators. Each of his large open cubes is 63 inches high, approximately eye level. At this scale, the artist introduced bodily proportion to his fundamental sculptural unit.<ref name="sollewitt.publicartfund">[http://sollewitt.publicartfund.org/exhibition/# Sol LeWitt: Structures 1965-2006, May 24 – December 2, 2011] Public Art Fund, New York.</ref> |
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Beginning in the mid-1980s, LeWitt composed some of his sculptures from stacked cinder blocks, still generating variations within self-imposed restrictions. At this time, he began to work with concrete blocks. In 1985, the first cement ''Cube'' was built in a park in [[Basel]].<ref>[http://ps1.org/exhibitions/view/220 Sol LeWitt: Concrete Block, December 17, 1999 - February 27, 2000.] MoMA P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center, New York. Accessed April 17, 2011.</ref> From 1990 onwards, LeWitt conceived multiple variations on a tower to be constructed using concrete blocks.<ref name="sollewitt.publicartfund" /> In a shift away from his well-known geometric vocabulary of forms, the works LeWitt realized in the late 1990s indicate vividly the artist's growing interest in somewhat random curvilinear shapes and highly saturated colors.<ref>[http://www.metmuseum.org/special/Sol_LeWitt/lewitt_more.htm#1 Sol LeWitt on the Roof: Splotches, Whirls and Twirls, April 26, 2005 – October 30, 2005] [[Metropolitan Museum of Art]], New York.</ref> |
Beginning in the mid-1980s, LeWitt composed some of his sculptures from stacked cinder blocks, still generating variations within self-imposed restrictions. At this time, he began to work with concrete blocks. In 1985, the first cement ''Cube'' was built in a park in [[Basel]].<ref>[http://ps1.org/exhibitions/view/220 Sol LeWitt: Concrete Block, December 17, 1999 - February 27, 2000.] MoMA P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center, New York. Accessed April 17, 2011.</ref> From 1990 onwards, LeWitt conceived multiple variations on a tower to be constructed using concrete blocks.<ref name="sollewitt.publicartfund" /> In a shift away from his well-known geometric vocabulary of forms, the works LeWitt realized in the late 1990s indicate vividly the artist's growing interest in somewhat random curvilinear shapes and highly saturated colors.<ref>[http://www.metmuseum.org/special/Sol_LeWitt/lewitt_more.htm#1 Sol LeWitt on the Roof: Splotches, Whirls and Twirls, April 26, 2005 – October 30, 2005] [[Metropolitan Museum of Art]], New York.</ref> |
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In 2007, LeWitt conceived ''9 Towers'', a cube made from more than 1,000 light-coloured bricks that measures five-meters on each side. It will be installed at the Kivik Art Centre in Lilla Stenshuvud, Sweden, by 2014.<ref>Gareth Harris and Hanne Cecilie Gulstad (January 1, 2014), [http://theartnewspaper.com/articles/Europe-is-set-for-a-summer-of-big-sculpture/31371 Europe is set for a summer of big sculpture] ''[[The Art Newspaper]]''.</ref> |
In 2007, LeWitt conceived ''9 Towers'', a cube made from more than 1,000 light-coloured bricks that measures five-meters on each side. It will be installed at the Kivik Art Centre in Lilla Stenshuvud, Sweden, by 2014.<ref>Gareth Harris and Hanne Cecilie Gulstad (January 1, 2014), [http://theartnewspaper.com/articles/Europe-is-set-for-a-summer-of-big-sculpture/31371 Europe is set for a summer of big sculpture] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140106185222/http://www.theartnewspaper.com/articles/Europe-is-set-for-a-summer-of-big-sculpture/31371 |date=2014-01-06 }} ''[[The Art Newspaper]]''.</ref> |
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===Wall drawings=== |
===Wall drawings=== |
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In 1968, LeWitt began to conceive sets of guidelines or simple diagrams for his two-dimensional works drawn directly on the wall, executed first in [[graphite]], then in [[crayon]], later in colored pencil and finally in chromatically rich washes of [[India ink]], bright acrylic paint, and other materials.<ref>Christopher Knight (April 10, 2007), [http://articles.latimes.com/2007/apr/10/local/me-lewitt10 Sol LeWitt, 78; sculptor and muralist changed art] ''[[Los Angeles Times]]''.</ref> Since he created a work of art for [[Paula Cooper Gallery]]’s inaugural show in 1968,<ref name="paulacoopergallery.com">[http://www.paulacoopergallery.com/exhibitions/545 Sol LeWitt, September 3 - October 10, 2013] [[Paula Cooper Gallery]], New York.</ref> an exhibition to benefit the Student Mobilization Committee to End the War in Vietnam, thousands of LeWitt’s drawings have been installed directly on the surfaces of walls.<ref>[http://www.albrightknox.org/collection/collection-highlights/piece:wall-drawing-1268-scribbles-staircase-akag-/ Sol LeWitt, ''Wall Drawing #1268: Scribbles: Staircase (AKAG)'' (2006)] [[Albright-Knox Art Gallery]], Buffalo.</ref> Between 1969 and 1970 he created four "Drawings Series", which presented different combinations of the basic element that governed many of his early wall drawings. In each series he applied a different system of change to each of twenty-four possible combinations of a square divided into four equal parts, each containing one of the four basic types of lines LeWitt used (vertical, horizontal, diagonal left, and diagonal right). The result is four possible permutations for each of the twenty-four original units. The system used in Drawings Series I is what LeWitt termed ‘Rotation,’ Drawings Series II uses a system termed ‘Mirror,’ Drawings Series III uses ‘Cross & Reverse Mirror,’ and Drawings Series IV uses ‘Cross Reverse’.<ref>[http://www.massmoca.org/lewitt/walldrawing.php?id=1211 Sol LeWitt, ''Wall Drawing 1211'', 2006] [[MASS MoCA]], North Adams, MA.</ref> |
In 1968, LeWitt began to conceive sets of guidelines or simple diagrams for his two-dimensional works drawn directly on the wall, executed first in [[graphite]], then in [[crayon]], later in colored pencil and finally in chromatically rich washes of [[India ink]], bright acrylic paint, and other materials.<ref>Christopher Knight (April 10, 2007), [http://articles.latimes.com/2007/apr/10/local/me-lewitt10 Sol LeWitt, 78; sculptor and muralist changed art] ''[[Los Angeles Times]]''.</ref> Since he created a work of art for [[Paula Cooper Gallery]]’s inaugural show in 1968,<ref name="paulacoopergallery.com">[http://www.paulacoopergallery.com/exhibitions/545 Sol LeWitt, September 3 - October 10, 2013] [[Paula Cooper Gallery]], New York.</ref> an exhibition to benefit the Student Mobilization Committee to End the War in Vietnam, thousands of LeWitt’s drawings have been installed directly on the surfaces of walls.<ref>[http://www.albrightknox.org/collection/collection-highlights/piece:wall-drawing-1268-scribbles-staircase-akag-/ Sol LeWitt, ''Wall Drawing #1268: Scribbles: Staircase (AKAG)'' (2006)] [[Albright-Knox Art Gallery]], Buffalo.</ref> Between 1969 and 1970 he created four "Drawings Series", which presented different combinations of the basic element that governed many of his early wall drawings. In each series he applied a different system of change to each of twenty-four possible combinations of a square divided into four equal parts, each containing one of the four basic types of lines LeWitt used (vertical, horizontal, diagonal left, and diagonal right). The result is four possible permutations for each of the twenty-four original units. The system used in Drawings Series I is what LeWitt termed ‘Rotation,’ Drawings Series II uses a system termed ‘Mirror,’ Drawings Series III uses ‘Cross & Reverse Mirror,’ and Drawings Series IV uses ‘Cross Reverse’.<ref>[http://www.massmoca.org/lewitt/walldrawing.php?id=1211 Sol LeWitt, ''Wall Drawing 1211'', 2006] [[MASS MoCA]], North Adams, MA.</ref> |
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In ''Wall Drawing #122'', first installed in 1972 at the [[Massachusetts Institute of Technology]] in Cambridge, the work contains “all combinations of two lines crossing, placed at random, using arcs from corners and sides, straight, not straight and broken lines” resulting in 150 unique pairings that unfold on the gallery walls. LeWitt further expanded on this theme, creating variations such as ''Wall Drawing #260'' at the [[Museum of Modern Art]], New York, which systematically runs through all possible two-part combinations of arcs and lines.<ref>[http://paulacoopergallery.com/exhibitions/504 Sol LeWitt: Arcs and Lines, May 7 - August 26, 2011] Paula Cooper Gallery, New York.</ref> Conceived in 1995, ''Wall Drawing #792: Black rectangles and squares'' underscores LeWitt's early interest in the intersections between art and architecture. Spanning the two floors of the Barbara Gladstone Gallery, Brussels, this work consists of varying combinations of black rectangles, creating an irregular grid-like pattern.<ref>[http://www.gladstonegallery.com/lewitt.asp?id=2064 Sol LeWitt, September 11 - October 30, 2010] Barbara Gladstone Gallery, Brussels.</ref> |
In ''Wall Drawing #122'', first installed in 1972 at the [[Massachusetts Institute of Technology]] in Cambridge, the work contains “all combinations of two lines crossing, placed at random, using arcs from corners and sides, straight, not straight and broken lines” resulting in 150 unique pairings that unfold on the gallery walls. LeWitt further expanded on this theme, creating variations such as ''Wall Drawing #260'' at the [[Museum of Modern Art]], New York, which systematically runs through all possible two-part combinations of arcs and lines.<ref>[http://paulacoopergallery.com/exhibitions/504 Sol LeWitt: Arcs and Lines, May 7 - August 26, 2011] Paula Cooper Gallery, New York.</ref> Conceived in 1995, ''Wall Drawing #792: Black rectangles and squares'' underscores LeWitt's early interest in the intersections between art and architecture. Spanning the two floors of the Barbara Gladstone Gallery, Brussels, this work consists of varying combinations of black rectangles, creating an irregular grid-like pattern.<ref>[http://www.gladstonegallery.com/lewitt.asp?id=2064 Sol LeWitt, September 11 - October 30, 2010]{{dead link|date=December 2017 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }} Barbara Gladstone Gallery, Brussels.</ref> |
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LeWitt, who had moved to Spoleto, Italy, in the late 1970s credited his transition from graphite pencil or crayon to vivid ink washes, to his encounter with the frescoes of [[Giotto]], [[Masaccio]], and other early Florentine painters.<ref name="paulacoopergallery.com"/> In the late 1990s and early 2000s, he created highly saturated colorful acrylic wall drawings. While their forms are curvilinear, playful and seem almost random, they are also drawn according to an exacting set of guidelines. The bands are a standard width, for example, and no colored section may touch another section of the same color.<ref>[http://www.massmoca.org/lewitt/walldrawing.php?id=1152 Sol LeWitt, ''Wall Drawing 1152: Whirls and twirls (Met)'', 2005] [[MASS MoCA]], North Adams, MA.</ref> |
LeWitt, who had moved to Spoleto, Italy, in the late 1970s credited his transition from graphite pencil or crayon to vivid ink washes, to his encounter with the frescoes of [[Giotto]], [[Masaccio]], and other early Florentine painters.<ref name="paulacoopergallery.com"/> In the late 1990s and early 2000s, he created highly saturated colorful acrylic wall drawings. While their forms are curvilinear, playful and seem almost random, they are also drawn according to an exacting set of guidelines. The bands are a standard width, for example, and no colored section may touch another section of the same color.<ref>[http://www.massmoca.org/lewitt/walldrawing.php?id=1152 Sol LeWitt, ''Wall Drawing 1152: Whirls and twirls (Met)'', 2005] [[MASS MoCA]], North Adams, MA.</ref> |
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* Cotter, Holland. [https://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/05/arts/design/05lewi.html Now in Residence: Walls of Luscious Austerity.] ''New York Times'', December 4, 2008. |
* Cotter, Holland. [https://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/05/arts/design/05lewi.html Now in Residence: Walls of Luscious Austerity.] ''New York Times'', December 4, 2008. |
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* Lacayo, Richard. [http://www.time.com/time/arts/article/0,8599,1859612,00.html Sol LeWitt's Dazzling Line Drawings.] ''Time'' magazine, November 17, 2008. |
* Lacayo, Richard. [http://www.time.com/time/arts/article/0,8599,1859612,00.html Sol LeWitt's Dazzling Line Drawings.] ''Time'' magazine, November 17, 2008. |
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* [http://www.cincinnatiartmuseum.org/absolutenm/templates/ArtTempNews.aspx?articleid=523&zoneid=90 Exhibition at the Cincinnati Art Museum in 2008] |
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20070928014959/http://www.cincinnatiartmuseum.org/absolutenm/templates/ArtTempNews.aspx?articleid=523&zoneid=90 Exhibition at the Cincinnati Art Museum in 2008] |
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* [http://dreher.netzliteratur.net/3_LeWitt.pdf Thomas Dreher: Sol LeWitt: The two Series "Forms derived from a Cube" and "Pyramids"] ([[PDF]] file, 8 p., ca. 10 MB) |
* [http://dreher.netzliteratur.net/3_LeWitt.pdf Thomas Dreher: Sol LeWitt: The two Series "Forms derived from a Cube" and "Pyramids"] ([[PDF]] file, 8 p., ca. 10 MB) |
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* Dreher, Thomas. [http://dreher.netzliteratur.net/3_Konzeptkunst_SolLeWitt2.html Sol LeWitt: Structures 1962-1993.] (German, illustrated review of an exhibition in 1993 at the Villa Stuck in Munich) |
* Dreher, Thomas. [http://dreher.netzliteratur.net/3_Konzeptkunst_SolLeWitt2.html Sol LeWitt: Structures 1962-1993.] (German, illustrated review of an exhibition in 1993 at the Villa Stuck in Munich) |
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* Dreher, Thomas. [http://dreher.netzliteratur.net/3_Konzeptkunst_SolLeWitt3.html Sol LeWitt: "Pyramids" for Joseph Beuys, Munich 1986] (German, illustrations of a room in the Lenbachhaus in Munich with four wall drawings realized by LeWitt's crew in 1986) |
* Dreher, Thomas. [http://dreher.netzliteratur.net/3_Konzeptkunst_SolLeWitt3.html Sol LeWitt: "Pyramids" for Joseph Beuys, Munich 1986] (German, illustrations of a room in the Lenbachhaus in Munich with four wall drawings realized by LeWitt's crew in 1986) |
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* [http://www.crownpoint.com/artists/lewitt/ Crown Point Press] LeWitt's prints |
* [http://www.crownpoint.com/artists/lewitt/ Crown Point Press] LeWitt's prints |
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* [http://www.fundacionnmac.org/english/coleccion.php?id=71 Sol LeWitt at NMAC Foundation] |
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20080526022916/http://www.fundacionnmac.org/english/coleccion.php?id=71 Sol LeWitt at NMAC Foundation] |
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* Vogel, Carol. [https://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/14/arts/design/14lewitt.html Subway Riders Are Greeted by a Blast of Sol LeWitt Color] ''New York Times'', September 13, 2009. |
* Vogel, Carol. [https://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/14/arts/design/14lewitt.html Subway Riders Are Greeted by a Blast of Sol LeWitt Color] ''New York Times'', September 13, 2009. |
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* Kimmelman, Michael. [https://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/09/arts/design/09lewitt.html Sol LeWitt, Master of Conceptualism, Dies at 78.] ''New York Times'', April 9, 2007. |
* Kimmelman, Michael. [https://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/09/arts/design/09lewitt.html Sol LeWitt, Master of Conceptualism, Dies at 78.] ''New York Times'', April 9, 2007. |
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* [http://www.legacy.com/CTPost/DeathNotices.asp?page=lifestory&personid=87165940 Obituary] in the ''[[Connecticut Post]]'' |
* [http://www.legacy.com/CTPost/DeathNotices.asp?page=lifestory&personid=87165940 Obituary] in the ''[[Connecticut Post]]'' |
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* Associated Press. [http://www.capecodonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID= |
* Associated Press. [https://web.archive.org/web/20120930103252/http://www.capecodonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=%2F20070409%2FNEWS%2F704090372 “Sol LeWitt, influential American artist, at 78.”] April 9, 2007. |
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* Gray, Sadie. [https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/conceptualist-pioneer-sol-lewitt-dies-aged-78-444088.html Conceptualist pioneer Sol LeWitt dies aged 78.] ''Independent'', UK, April 10, 2007. |
* Gray, Sadie. [https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/conceptualist-pioneer-sol-lewitt-dies-aged-78-444088.html Conceptualist pioneer Sol LeWitt dies aged 78.] ''Independent'', UK, April 10, 2007. |
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* [http://www.artnet.com/artist/10484/sol-lewitt.html Sol LeWitt] on ArtNet. |
* [http://www.artnet.com/artist/10484/sol-lewitt.html Sol LeWitt] on ArtNet. |
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* [http://weblab.uni-lueneburg.de/socialsoftware/paradise/index.php/Sol_LeWitt Sol LeWitt Interviews, Conceptual Paradise, Leuphana University Lueneburg] |
* [https://archive.is/20110531030315/http://weblab.uni-lueneburg.de/socialsoftware/paradise/index.php/Sol_LeWitt Sol LeWitt Interviews, Conceptual Paradise, Leuphana University Lueneburg] |
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* [http://sam.nmartmuseum.org/view/people/asitem/L/21?t:state:flow=8f461c39-5235-4993-a7c6-2cce65bf901e Sol LeWitt at New Mexico Museum of Art] |
* [http://sam.nmartmuseum.org/view/people/asitem/L/21?t:state:flow=8f461c39-5235-4993-a7c6-2cce65bf901e Sol LeWitt at New Mexico Museum of Art] |
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*[http://www.fundaciotapies.org/site/spip.php?rubrique458 Sol LeWitt's exhibition at Fundació Antoni Tàpies] |
*[http://www.fundaciotapies.org/site/spip.php?rubrique458 Sol LeWitt's exhibition at Fundació Antoni Tàpies] |
Revision as of 00:47, 20 December 2017
Sol LeWitt | |
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Conceptual Art & Minimalism |
Solomon "Sol" LeWitt (September 9, 1928 – April 8, 2007) was an American artist linked to various movements, including Conceptual art and Minimalism.[1]
LeWitt came to fame in the late 1960s with his wall drawings and "structures" (a term he preferred instead of "sculptures") but was prolific in a wide range of media including drawing, printmaking, photography, painting, installation and artist's books. He has been the subject of hundreds of solo exhibitions in museums and galleries around the world since 1965.
Life
LeWitt was born in
At MoMA, LeWitt’s co-workers included fellow artists
LeWitt taught at several New York schools, including
Work
LeWitt is regarded as a founder of both
Sculpture
In the early 1960s, LeWitt first began to create his "structures," a term he used to describe his three-dimensional work.[6] His frequent use of open, modular structures originates from the cube, a form that influenced the artist’s thinking from the time that he first became an artist. After creating an early body of work made up of closed form wooden objects, heavily-lacquered by hand, in the mid-1960s he “decided to remove the skin altogether and reveal the structure.” This skeletal form, the radically simplified open cube, became a basic building block of the artist’s three-dimensional work. In the mid-1960s, LeWitt began to work with the open cube: twelve equal linear elements connected at eight corners to form a skeletal structure. From 1969, he would conceive many of his modular structures on a large scale, to be constructed in aluminum or steel by industrial fabricators. Each of his large open cubes is 63 inches high, approximately eye level. At this scale, the artist introduced bodily proportion to his fundamental sculptural unit.[7]
Beginning in the mid-1980s, LeWitt composed some of his sculptures from stacked cinder blocks, still generating variations within self-imposed restrictions. At this time, he began to work with concrete blocks. In 1985, the first cement Cube was built in a park in Basel.[8] From 1990 onwards, LeWitt conceived multiple variations on a tower to be constructed using concrete blocks.[7] In a shift away from his well-known geometric vocabulary of forms, the works LeWitt realized in the late 1990s indicate vividly the artist's growing interest in somewhat random curvilinear shapes and highly saturated colors.[9]
In 2007, LeWitt conceived 9 Towers, a cube made from more than 1,000 light-coloured bricks that measures five-meters on each side. It will be installed at the Kivik Art Centre in Lilla Stenshuvud, Sweden, by 2014.[10]
Wall drawings
In 1968, LeWitt began to conceive sets of guidelines or simple diagrams for his two-dimensional works drawn directly on the wall, executed first in graphite, then in crayon, later in colored pencil and finally in chromatically rich washes of India ink, bright acrylic paint, and other materials.[11] Since he created a work of art for Paula Cooper Gallery’s inaugural show in 1968,[12] an exhibition to benefit the Student Mobilization Committee to End the War in Vietnam, thousands of LeWitt’s drawings have been installed directly on the surfaces of walls.[13] Between 1969 and 1970 he created four "Drawings Series", which presented different combinations of the basic element that governed many of his early wall drawings. In each series he applied a different system of change to each of twenty-four possible combinations of a square divided into four equal parts, each containing one of the four basic types of lines LeWitt used (vertical, horizontal, diagonal left, and diagonal right). The result is four possible permutations for each of the twenty-four original units. The system used in Drawings Series I is what LeWitt termed ‘Rotation,’ Drawings Series II uses a system termed ‘Mirror,’ Drawings Series III uses ‘Cross & Reverse Mirror,’ and Drawings Series IV uses ‘Cross Reverse’.[14]
In Wall Drawing #122, first installed in 1972 at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, the work contains “all combinations of two lines crossing, placed at random, using arcs from corners and sides, straight, not straight and broken lines” resulting in 150 unique pairings that unfold on the gallery walls. LeWitt further expanded on this theme, creating variations such as Wall Drawing #260 at the Museum of Modern Art, New York, which systematically runs through all possible two-part combinations of arcs and lines.[15] Conceived in 1995, Wall Drawing #792: Black rectangles and squares underscores LeWitt's early interest in the intersections between art and architecture. Spanning the two floors of the Barbara Gladstone Gallery, Brussels, this work consists of varying combinations of black rectangles, creating an irregular grid-like pattern.[16]
LeWitt, who had moved to Spoleto, Italy, in the late 1970s credited his transition from graphite pencil or crayon to vivid ink washes, to his encounter with the frescoes of Giotto, Masaccio, and other early Florentine painters.[12] In the late 1990s and early 2000s, he created highly saturated colorful acrylic wall drawings. While their forms are curvilinear, playful and seem almost random, they are also drawn according to an exacting set of guidelines. The bands are a standard width, for example, and no colored section may touch another section of the same color.[17]
In 2005 LeWitt began a series of ‘scribble’ wall drawings, so termed because they required the draftsmen to fill in areas of the wall by scribbling with graphite. The scribbling occurs at six different densities, which are indicated on the artist’s diagrams and then mapped out in string on the surface of the wall. The gradations of scribble density produce a continuum of tone that implies three dimensions.
According to the principle of his work, LeWitt's wall drawings are usually executed by people other than the artist himself. Even after his death, people are still making these drawings.[19] He would therefore eventually use teams of assistants to create such works. Writing about making wall drawings, LeWitt himself observed in 1971 that "each person draws a line differently and each person understands words differently".[20] Between 1968 and his death in 2007, LeWitt created more than 1,270 wall drawings.[21] The wall drawings, executed on-site, generally exist for the duration of an exhibition; they are then destroyed, giving the work in its physical form an ephemeral quality.[22] They can be installed, removed, and then reinstalled in another location, as many times as required for exhibition purposes. When transferred to another location, the number of walls can change only by ensuring that the proportions of the original diagram are retained.[23]
Permanent murals by LeWitt can be found at, among others, the
Gouaches
In the 1980s, in particular after a trip to Italy, LeWitt started using gouache, an opaque water-based paint, to produce free-flowing abstract works in contrasting colors. These represented a significant departure from the rest of his practice, as he created these works with his own hands.[6] LeWitt’s gouaches are often created in series based on a specific motif. Past series have included Irregular Forms, Parallel Curves, Squiggly Brushstrokes and Web-like Grids.[26]
Although this loosely rendered composition may have been a departure from his earlier, more geometrically structured works visually, it nevertheless remained in alignment with his original artistic intent. Interestingly, LeWitt painstakingly made his own prints from his gouache compositions. In 2012, art advisor Heidi Lee Komaromi curated, "Sol LeWitt: Works on Paper 1983-2003", an exhibition revealing the variety of techniques LeWitt employed on paper during the final decades of his life.
Artist's books
From 1966, LeWitt's interest in seriality led to his production of more than 50 artist's books throughout his career; he later donated many examples to the Wadsworth Athenaeum's library. In 1976 LeWitt helped found
Printed Matter was one of the first organizations dedicated to creating and distributing artists' books, incorporating self-publishing, small-press publishing, and artist networks and collectives.[28] For LeWitt and others, Printed Matter also served as a support system for avant-garde artists, balancing its role as publisher, exhibition space, retail space, and community center for the downtown arts scene,[29] in that sense emulating the network of aspiring artists LeWitt knew and enjoyed as a staff member at the Museum of Modern Art.
Architecture and landscaping
LeWitt collaborated with architect Stephen Lloyd to design a synagogue for his congregation
In 1981, LeWitt was invited by the Fairmount Park Art Association (currently known as the Association for Public Art) to propose a public artwork for a site in Fairmount Park. He selected the long, rectangular plot of land known as the Reilly Memorial and submitted a drawing with instructions. Installed in 2011, Lines in Four Directions in Flowers is made up of more than 7,000 plantings arranged in strategically configured rows. In his original proposal, the artist planned an installation of flower plantings of four different colors (white, yellow, red & blue) in four equal rectangular areas, in rows of four directions (vertical, horizontal, diagonal right & left) framed by evergreen hedges of about 2’ height, with each color block comprising four to five species that bloom sequentially.[32][33]
Collection
Since the early 1960s he and his wife, Carol Androccio, gathered nearly 9,000 works of art through purchases, in trades with other artists and dealers, or as gifts.
Exhibitions
LeWitt's work was first publicly exhibited in 1964 in a group show curated by
The
In 2006, LeWitt’s “Drawing Series…” was displayed at
"Sol LeWitt: A Wall Drawing Retrospective", a collaboration between the
Furthermore, the artist was the subject of exhibitions at P.S. 1 Contemporary Center, Long Island City (Concrete Blocks);[41] the Addison Gallery of American Art, Andover (Twenty-Five Years of Wall Drawings, 1968-1993); and Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, Hartford (Incomplete Cubes), which traveled to three art museums in the United States. At the time of his death, LeWitt had just organized a retrospective of his work at the Allen Memorial Art Museum in Oberlin, Ohio. At Naples Sol LeWitt. L'artista e i suoi artisti opens at the Museo Madre on 15.12.2012.
Museum collections
LeWitt's works are found in the most important museum collections including:
Influence
Sol LeWitt was one of the main figures of his time; he transformed the process of art-making by questioning the fundamental relationship between an idea, the subjectivity of the artist, and the artwork a given idea might produce. While many artists were challenging Modern conceptions of originality, authorship, and artistic genius in the 1960s, LeWitt struck a profoundly different stance from the perception that such approaches to art as
Gallery representation
Sol LeWitt has been represented by the Paula Cooper Gallery in New York, Donald Young Gallery in Chicago, Lisson Gallery in London, and Yvon Lambert Gallery in Paris.[46][47][48] The Pace Gallery was appointed the International Representative of the LeWitt Estate in November 2007, and continues to represent the Estate today.
His auction record of $749,000 was set in 2014 for his gouache on paperboard piece Wavy Brushstroke (1995) at Sotheby's, New York.[49]
Selected books
- LeWitt, Sol. Arcs, from Corners & Sides, Circles, & Grids and All Their Combinations. Bern, Switzerland: Kunsthalle Bern & Paul Biancini, 1972.
- LeWitt, Sol. The Location of Eight Points. Washington, DC: Max Protetch Gallery, 1974.
- LeWitt, Sol. Photogrids. New York: P. David Press, 1977/1978. ISBN 0-8478-0166-7
- Legg, Alicia (ed.). Sol LeWitt: the Museum of Modern Art, New York. New York: The Museum, 1978. ISBN 0-87070-427-3
- LeWitt, Sol. Geometric Figures & Color. New York: H.N. Abrams, 1979. ISBN 0-8109-0953-7
- LeWitt, Sol. Autobiography. New York and Boston: Multiple and Lois and Michael K. Torf, 1980. ISBN 0-9605580-0-4
- LeWitt, Sol. Sol LeWitt Wall Drawings, 1968-1984. [Amsterdam, Endhoven, and Hartford, CT: Stedelijk Museum, Van Abbemuseum, and Wadsworth Atheneum, 1984.] ISBN 90-70149-09-5
- LeWitt, Sol. Sol LeWitt Prints, 1970-86. London: Tate Gallery, 1986. ISBN 0-946590-51-6
- LeWitt, Sol. Sol LeWitt Drawings, 1958-1992. The Hague: Haags Gemeentemuseum, 1992. ISBN 90-6730-092-6
- LeWitt, Sol. Sol LeWitt, Twenty-Five Years of Wall Drawings, 1968-1993. Andover, MA, and Seattle: Addison Gallery of American Art and University of Washington Press, 1993. ISBN 1-879886-34-0
- LeWitt, Sol. Sol LeWitt - Structures, 1962-1993. Oxford: Museum of Modern Art, 1993. ISBN 0-905836-78-2
- LeWitt, Sol, Cristina Bechtler, and Charlotte von Koerber. 100 Cubes. Ostfildern: Cantz, 1996. ISBN 3-89322-753-9
- LeWitt, Sol. Sol LeWitt, Bands of Color. Chicago: Museum of Contemporary Art, 1999. ISBN 0-933856-58-X
- Garrels, Gary, and Sol LeWitt. Sol LeWitt: a Retrospective. San Francisco and New Haven: San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and Yale University Press, 2000. ISBN 0-300-08358-0
- Gale, Peggy (ed.). Artists Talk: 1969–1977. Halifax, NS: ISBN 0-919616-40-2
- LeWitt, Sol, Nicholas Baume, Jonathan Flatley, and Pamela M. Lee. Sol LeWitt: Incomplete Open Cubes. Hartford, CT, and Cambridge, MA: Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art and MIT Press, 2001. ISBN 0-262-52311-6
- LeWitt, Sol, Dean Swanson, and Martin L. Friedman. LeWitt x 2: Sol LeWitt: Structure and Line: Selections from the LeWitt Collection. Madison, WI: Madison Museum of Contemporary Art, 2006. ISBN 0-913883-33-6
- LeWitt, Sol. Sol LeWitt: Wall Drawings. Bologna, Italy: Damiani, 2006. ISBN 88-89431-59-8
- Cross, Susan, and Denise Markonish (eds.). Sol LeWitt: 100 Views. North Adams, MA, and New Haven, CT: Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art and Yale University Press, 2009. ISBN 978-0-300-15282-1
- Maffei, Giorgio, and Emanuele De Donno. Sol LeWitt: Artist's Books. Sant'Eraclio di Foligno, Italy: Viaindustriae, 2009. ISBN 978-88-903459-2-0
- LINES & FORMES (sic), Livre d'artiste (album de douze planches en noir et blanc), édité par YVON LAMBERT, Paris 1989, ISBN 978-2-900982-06-8.
- Roberts, Veronica (ed.), Lucy R. Lippard, and Kirsten Swenson. "Converging Lines: Eva Hesse and Sol LeWitt." Austin: Blanton Museum of Art. Distributed by Yale University Press, 2014. ISBN 0-300-20482-5
References
- ^ McNay, Michael. "Obituary: Sol LeWitt: American artist whose treatment of forms and colours defied critical analysis". The Guardian, April 11, 2007. Accessed April 17, 2011.
- New York Times.
- ^ a b c Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum. Collection online: Sol LeWitt. Accessed April 17, 2011.
- ^ Ulaby, Neda. "Sol LeWitt: conceptual art pioneer dies at 78." All Things Considered, NPR, April 9, 2007. Accessed April 17, 2011.
- ^ [1]
- ^ a b Sol LeWitt: Structures and Drawings, April 28 - June 30, 2011 Archived May 19, 2011, at the Wayback Machine Barbara Mathes Gallery, New York.
- ^ a b Sol LeWitt: Structures 1965-2006, May 24 – December 2, 2011 Public Art Fund, New York.
- ^ Sol LeWitt: Concrete Block, December 17, 1999 - February 27, 2000. MoMA P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center, New York. Accessed April 17, 2011.
- ^ Sol LeWitt on the Roof: Splotches, Whirls and Twirls, April 26, 2005 – October 30, 2005 Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.
- ^ Gareth Harris and Hanne Cecilie Gulstad (January 1, 2014), Europe is set for a summer of big sculpture Archived 2014-01-06 at the Wayback Machine The Art Newspaper.
- ^ Christopher Knight (April 10, 2007), Sol LeWitt, 78; sculptor and muralist changed art Los Angeles Times.
- ^ a b Sol LeWitt, September 3 - October 10, 2013 Paula Cooper Gallery, New York.
- Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo.
- MASS MoCA, North Adams, MA.
- ^ Sol LeWitt: Arcs and Lines, May 7 - August 26, 2011 Paula Cooper Gallery, New York.
- ^ Sol LeWitt, September 11 - October 30, 2010[permanent dead link] Barbara Gladstone Gallery, Brussels.
- MASS MoCA, North Adams, MA.
- MASS MoCA, North Adams, MA.
- ^ Sol LeWitt National Gallery, Washington, D.C.
- ^ Adrian Searle (December 7, 2006), Second thoughts The Guardian.
- Wall Street Journal.
- ^ Sol LeWitt. Wall Drawings from 1968 to 2007 Centre Pompidou-Metz.
- ^ Sol LeWitt, Wall Drawing #1136 (2004) Tate, London.
- ^ New York Times.
- Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo.
- ^ Sol LeWitt: Gouaches, September 6 - October 15, 2005. Paula Cooper Gallery, New York. Accessed April 17, 2011.
- ^ Ault, Julie (December 2006). "Interview with Lucy R. Lippard on Printed Matter". Printed Matter, Inc. Retrieved 28 July 2015.
- ISSN 0029-3423. Retrieved 30 July 2015.
- ^ Cite error: The named reference
NewYork-AfterAndy-1990
was invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ Ivry, Benjamin (May 8, 2009). "Sol LeWitt: A Jewish Artist's Leap Into the Unknown". Forward.
- ^ Zimmer, William (December 9, 2001). "Art Takes a Prominent Spot In Chester's New Synagogue". New York Times.
- ^ Sol LeWitt: Lines in Four Directions in Flowers Philadelphia Museum of Art.
- ^ Chelsea Allison (June 5, 2012), The Supernaturalists: Fresh Ellsworth Kelly and Sol LeWitt Exhibitions Bloom on the East Coast Vogue.
- ^ Genocchio, Benjamin. "LeWitt the collector, filling up a warehouse." New York Times, January 1, 2004. Accessed April 17, 2011.
- ^ LeWitt x 2, September 9 – December 9, 2007 Weatherspoon Art Museum, Greensboro, NC.
- ^ Roberts, Veronica, ed. "Converging Lines: Eva Hesse and Sol LeWitt." Austin: Blanton Museum of Art. Distributed by Yale University Press, 2014.
- ^ Kennedy, Randy (June 26, 2009). "A Round Peg". The New York Times. The New York Times Company. Retrieved 2009-06-07.
- ^ Sol LeWitt: Works on Paper, May 8 - June 19, 2009. Paula Cooper Gallery, New York. Accessed April 17, 2011.
- ^ Sol LeWitt, September 15 - October 23, 2004. Lisson Gallery, London.
- ^ Holland Cotter, "Now in Residence: Walls of Luscious Austerity" New York Times, December 4, 2008.
- ^ MoMA PS1 Exhibition Page
- ^ Sol LeWitt Lisson Gallery, London.
- ^ http://radicalart.info/concept/LeWitt/paragraphs.html
- ^ Adam D. Weinberg (August 21, 2007). "Backstage Stars". CULTURE+TRAVEL. Retrieved 2008-04-29Template:Inconsistent citations
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(help)CS1 maint: postscript (link) - ^ http://newsgrist.typepad.com/underbelly/2008/04/modest-proposal.html
- ^ Sol LeWitt. Donald Young Gallery, Chicago. Accessed April 17, 2011.
- ^ Sol LeWitt. Lisson Gallery, London. Accessed April 17, 2011.
- ^ Sol LeWitt. Yvon Lambert Gallery, Paris. Accessed April 17, 2011.
- ^ Sol LeWitt, Wvy Brushstroke, Sale 226 Sotheby's, CONTEMPORARY ART DAY AUCTION, 12 November 2014, New York.
External links
- Sol LeWitt exhibition at Paula Cooper Gallery, NYC 2013
- Sol LeWitt artwork at Brooke Alexander Gallery
- Sol LeWitt at the Museum of Modern Art
- Oral history interview with Sol LeWitt, 1974 July 15, Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution
- In vast LeWitt show, absurdity and beauty Boston Globe, Boston, MA
- Cotter, Holland. Now in Residence: Walls of Luscious Austerity. New York Times, December 4, 2008.
- Lacayo, Richard. Sol LeWitt's Dazzling Line Drawings. Time magazine, November 17, 2008.
- Exhibition at the Cincinnati Art Museum in 2008
- Thomas Dreher: Sol LeWitt: The two Series "Forms derived from a Cube" and "Pyramids" (PDF file, 8 p., ca. 10 MB)
- Dreher, Thomas. Sol LeWitt: Structures 1962-1993. (German, illustrated review of an exhibition in 1993 at the Villa Stuck in Munich)
- Dreher, Thomas. Sol LeWitt: "Pyramids" for Joseph Beuys, Munich 1986 (German, illustrations of a room in the Lenbachhaus in Munich with four wall drawings realized by LeWitt's crew in 1986)
- Crown Point Press LeWitt's prints
- Sol LeWitt at NMAC Foundation
- Vogel, Carol. Subway Riders Are Greeted by a Blast of Sol LeWitt Color New York Times, September 13, 2009.
- Kimmelman, Michael. Sol LeWitt, Master of Conceptualism, Dies at 78. New York Times, April 9, 2007.
- Obituary in the Connecticut Post
- Associated Press. “Sol LeWitt, influential American artist, at 78.” April 9, 2007.
- Gray, Sadie. Conceptualist pioneer Sol LeWitt dies aged 78. Independent, UK, April 10, 2007.
- Sol LeWitt on ArtNet.
- Sol LeWitt Interviews, Conceptual Paradise, Leuphana University Lueneburg
- Sol LeWitt at New Mexico Museum of Art
- Sol LeWitt's exhibition at Fundació Antoni Tàpies
- Sol LeWitt at The Jewish Museum