New York's City Hall Park has been recently into an outdoor museum exhibit featuring one of the world’s greatest modern artists, the late Sol LeWitt. The park is storing a collection of LeWitt’s 27 most famous pieces of art throughout his career. It is the first outdoor exhibit detailing his extraordinary career. LeWitt was a leader in the Minimalism and Conceptualism movements, with specialized mediums ranging from photography, to works on paper to wall drawings, and 3-dimensional structures that explore different geometric forms such as pyramids and cubes. The selected pieces have been featured in museums around the world including London’s Tate Modern, Amsterdam’s Musée National d’Art Moderne, and Paris’ Centre Georges Pompidou. LeWitt died earlier this year and I ran a short piece on his work then, but if you're in NY with an hour or two spare, it could be worth the work to see so many LeWitts in the one place at the one time - especially in an outdoor setting.
Burn brightly, Pete
Artist Sol LeWitt insisted that the artist’s role lies principally in the conception rather than the execution of the work. LeWitt then went farther, arguing that the execution may be carried out by a competent assistant working to a preconceived plan without any assistance from the artist at all.
His Lines in Four Directions,Each in a Quarter of a Square is a classic 1969 ink study, where an upright sequence is followed, clockwise, by a horizontal and two kinds of diagonal direction. It sounds simple enough, but the result looks unexpectedly complex, even mysterious. (See above) He then began producing spectacular mural-size drawings in private and public spaces, with assistants carrying out his written instructions. His first solo show in London covered five walls with thin pencil lines executed entirely by students. LeWitt did not see the work until they had finished making it.
LeWitt died in 2007 but his legacy to art survives in an amazing collection of writings, photographs, and above all the drawings that continue to delight amaze and confound. Challenging to some, delightful and beautiful to others - LeWitt pushes the boundaries and asks us all to draw our own conclusions about the process of drawing.
Burn brightly, Pete.
