Student Life and After

LeWitt majored in art at Syracuse University and was drafted for the Korean War. One of his on-duty jobs was making posters!

First Jobs in New York City in the 1950s

• Graphic designer for Seventeen magazine
• Graphic designer for architect I. M. Pei (designer of the East Building of the National Gallery!)
• Salesman in the book shop and night receptionist at the Museum of Modern Art

Important Influences

• Eadweard Muybridge's photographic sequences showing motion
• Working in an architect's office. Like an architect (who comes up with the idea but uses others to do the building), LeWitt would use assistants to produce three-dimensional works he called "structures." He wrote: "An architect doesn't go off with a shovel and dig his foundation and lay every brick. He's still an artist."
• A 1959–1960 exhibit called Sixteen Americans featuring paintings by Jasper Johns and Frank Stella, among others, gave form to his ideas about art: "I wasn't really that interested in objects. I was interested in ideas."

Eadweard Muybridge, Muybridge's Horse, 1881

Jasper Johns, 0 through 9, 1960

Frank Stella, Sacramento Mall Proposal #4, 1978

LeWitt in the 1960s

• Structures: LeWitt begins to make three-dimensional structures placing geometric forms—solid or segmented squares and cubes—next to one another using a fixed ratio for the relationship of segments and spaces in each structure.
• Wall Drawings: LeWitt creates instructions for lines and shapes to be painted directly on gallery walls. When an exhibition ends, the wall drawing is painted over. The "work of art" consists of LeWitt's written installation instruction and a certificate of authenticity.

Sol LeWitt, Series 1-2-3: 47 3-Part Variations on Three Different Kinds of Cubes, 1968

Sol LeWitt, Wall Drawing No. 681 C, 1993

Later LeWitt

• Inexpensive cement block structures
• Adds colors in the 1980s and 1990s
• Adds curving lines and shapes

Sol LeWitt, Wavy Brushstrokes, 1996

Sol LeWitt, Four-Sided Pyramid, first installation 1997, fabricated 1999

LeWitt's Working Method

LeWitt comes up with an idea or plan for his art, usually a set of simple instructions—sometimes with line drawings. He then hands over the written plan to his assistants, and they construct the work. LeWitt's instructions are both specific and open-ended so that the resulting work of art varies according to the interpretation made by the draftsperson producing the work of art.

Take a look at assistants executing Wall Drawing #65 / Lines not short, not straight, crossing and touching, drawn at random using four colors, uniformly dispersed with maximum density, covering the entire surface of the wall (National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1971, executed May 10–19, 2004).

		This is how LeWitt explained Conceptual Art: "In conceptual art, the idea or concept is the most important aspect of the work. When an artist uses a conceptual form of art, it means that all planning and decisions are made beforehand. The execution is a perfunctory affair. The idea becomes the machine that makes the art."

Installation of Wall Drawing No. 681 C, National Gallery of Art, Washington, August 25, 1993

		LeWitt "Math" Quotations "The mathematics used by most artists is simple arithmetic or simple number systems." "The best that can be said for either the square or the cube is that they are relatively uninteresting in themselves . . . they lack the expressive force of other more interesting forms and shapes. They are standard and universally recognized . . . released from the necessity of being significant in themselves, they obviate the necessity of inventing other forms and reserve their use for invention."

Critics describe LeWitt's early works as

austere, simple, stark, unemotional, serial, minimal, conceptual, architectural, modular, systematic, ...stunningly beautiful.

		Think about it! Who is the artist when someone comes up with an idea for a work of art but has others make or construct it? Must an artist create a work with his/her own hand to produce a valid work of art?

LeWitt died in 2007.