Overview

“The narrative of serial artworks is more like music than like literature.”

Sol LeWitt (Hartford, CT, 1928 – New York, NY, 2007) was an American artist recognized as a founder of both Minimal and Conceptual art. LeWitt completed his BFA at Syracuse University in the 1940s. During the mid-1960s, he worked as a night receptionist at the Museum of Modern Art, where he met and befriended future art critic Lucy Lippard and fellow artists Dan Flavin, Robert Mangold, and Robert Ryman. At that time, LeWitt also started attempting three-dimensional works based on cubes. For these works, he used mathematical approaches and systematically developed variations on his own creations. His body of work concentrates more on the idea behind the art rather than conventional aesthetics, yet is still rich in complexity. Starting with Wall Drawing 1: Drawing Series II 14 (A & B) installed at Paula Cooper Gallery in 1968, LeWitt produced large-scale drawings based on rigorous arrays of designs, shapes, colors, and grids rendered in pencil and paint in conjunction with instructions and diagrams, which needed to be followed in installing the work. LeWitt's works and his innovative methodology of executing art had a profound influence on both his peers and younger artists including Frank Stella and Eva Hesse.

Works
  • Sol LeWitt, Irregular Form, 1999
    Sol LeWitt
    Irregular Form, 1999
    Gouache on paper
    7 1/2 x 14 7/8 in (19.1 x 37.8 cm)
  • Sol LeWitt, Irregular Grid, 1999
    Sol LeWitt
    Irregular Grid, 1999
    Gouache on paper
    22 5/8 x 22 3/8 in (57.5 x 56.8 cm)
  • Sol LeWitt, Wavy Lines, 1997
    Sol LeWitt
    Wavy Lines, 1997
    Gouache on paper
    15 x 11 1/4 in (38.1 x 28.6 cm)
  • Sol LeWitt, Cube, 1996
    Sol LeWitt
    Cube, 1996
    Etching in colors on Magnani Pescia paper 250 Gram
    26 x 19 in (66 x 48.3 cm)
    Edition of 50, plus 8 AP
  • Sol LeWitt, Irregular Bands with Colors Superimposed, 1994
    Sol LeWitt
    Irregular Bands with Colors Superimposed, 1994
    Color woodcut on Tosa-Kozo paper
    29 1/2 × 42 1/2 in (74.9 × 108 cm)
    Edition of 25, plus 10 AP and 3 PP
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