Art Exchange The easy way to invest in Art. Irreguar Form, Sol LeWitt Presentation Photo pleine page de l’œuvre Irregular Form, Sol LeWitt, 1998 Sol LeWitt, 1928-2007 Technical description of the artwork Irregular Form, Sol LeWitt, 1998 Title: ………………………………………………………………………………………… Irregular Form Artist: ……………………………………………………………………………………………… Sol LeWitt Date: …………………………………………………………………………………………………… 1998 Edition number:…………………………………………………………………………………………… 1/1 Dimensions: ………………………………………………………………………………… 152 × 235cm This unique gouache is a signature piece by the conceptual artist Sol LeWitt, using lines and colours to create an harmonious composition. Sol LeWitt began his career in New York during the early 60s. He is known as one of the founding members of Conceptualism and Minimalism. From 1966, he participated in several major collective exhibitions: “Primary Structures” at the Jewish Museum of New York (1966), “When Attitudes Become Form” at the Kunsthalle in Bern (1969). In 1967, LeWitt wrote “Paragraphs on Conceptual Art”, a key text on Conceptualism. In this text he explains the premises for his work: an artwork is a simple illustration of an idea, neither the materials with which it is composed nor its size are of any importance. “The idea becomes the machine that creates art.” Although drawing is a main feature of his works, he is also well known for his sculptures, especially those fo- cussed on the cube: a construction that can be converted into varied repetitions of a single unit by following the principles of geometrical progression. His early works were influenced by his early contact with Minimalism: through placing his objects on the floor he questions the use of the plinth and thus the boundaries imposed by classical sculpture. Moreover, LeWitt painted his works in white in order to eliminate all possibilities of repre- sentation and expression. The works of Sol LeWitt can be found in major private and public collections all over the world and his writings remain to this day an important reference to Conceptual Art. Biography From a family of Russian Jewish immigrants, that the idea and preparation for each project Sol LeWitt was born on 9 September 1928 in was more important than its execution. Hertford, Connecticut in the United States of At the same time, LeWitt started devoting a lot of America. His father died when Sol was only six time to painting. He employed a live model and years old and consequently he moved with his began by copying the style of the Great Masters, mother to New England to live with his aunt. only to quickly discover that this was not to his Highly encouraging her son’s growing interest in taste. As an aspiring artist in New York towards art, his mother signed him up for drawing les- the end of Abstract Expressionism, a genre that sons at the Wadsworth Atheneum. These classes depends entirely on one’s individual touch, furthered his passion, seeing LeWitt spending LeWitt did not believe that he had anything par- his free time sketching on leftover scraps of pa- ticular to contribute. per at his aunt’s boutique. He studied art at the University of Syracuse, gra- In 1959-60, an exhibition entitled “Sixteen Ame- duating in 1949. During the summer of 1950, ricans” at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) LeWitt travelled to Europe to continue his stu- of New York presented works from artists such dies in art as well as architecture, focussing as Jasper Johns and Frank Stella. This exhibition more specifically on the great “Masters” of art. played a major role in shaping LeWitt’s ideas: “I Serving in the army during the Korean War, was not particularly interested in the objects, but one of his main tasks was the composition of rather the ideas”. posters. Following on from his military service, In 1960 he accepted a job at the MoMA, wor- LeWitt moved to New York to study at the Car- king day and night shifts in the library. Here he toonists and Illustrators School (known today became a member of the artistic community, as the School of Visual Arts). He then worked making many acquaintances including the mi- in the graphics department of Seventeen, a ma- nimalism artist Dan Flavin, known for his sculp- gazine for young girls, where he was in charge tures and installations and Eva Hesse, famous of putting together the monthly mock-up, before for having promoted the use of materials such being employed as a draftsman by the architect as fibre glass, latex and plastic. He also befrien- Ian Ming Pei. ded Lucy Lippard, curator, writer and pioneer of Working for Ming Pei considerably shaped his Conceptualism and Feminism. ideas on art, notably with regards to geometri- cal precision. Moreover, his collaboration with architects also affected his opinion concerning Minimalism is at the origin of LeWitt’s artwork. his relationship with work, realising that artists – Along with artists such as Carl André, Donald like architects – can use the help of other people. Judd, Robert Morris, Dan Flavin or Walter de Nonetheless, his most important discovery was Maria, he became a prominent figure in Ameri- Biography (continued) can Minimalist art. He is recognised, however, tial, “recreating it by starting with the cube”. as being the artist who challenged the bounda- ries of conceptual logic from the start, placing it As of 1963, he worked on his first series of sus- at the service of a controlled irrationality. pended structures made out of wooden beams, This association formed due to its intense use of hung parallel to one another, on which he pain- reduced forms, for example the simplified geo- ted black and white stripes. At the same time, metrical structures such as his cubes. He uses he began producing his first elaborated modular this style from 1965 in sequential configurations structures in the form of a rectangle, made out of that become his signature style. Later on, LeWitt wood or steel and once again painted in black became closely linked to Conceptualism, to the and white. Through these structures, one can see point that he was often referred to as “the father LeWitt’s almost idealistic tendency, reinforced of conceptual art”. through the use of white, to declare geometry as a true form of an eternal order. In 1967, he wrote Paragraphs on Conceptual Through elementary calculations such as mul- Art, in which he defines his art: to communi- tiplication or division, LeWitt studied all the cate his ideas, finding and forming the idea was sculptural varieties of a cube. He played with far more important than the actual physical form modular forms and the number of edges, giving produced at the end. LeWitt is in fact considered him a quasi-infinite choice of spatial possibili- as one of the first artists to have used the term ties. In these sculptures, his aim was not to ela- ‘conceptual’ to describe the practices of various borate a perceptive space, but rather to project artists (himself included). the notion of organisation in the given space and reduce the possibilities of a form’s variations. An important discovery for LeWitt in the 60s was the 19th Century photographer Eadweard At the time, linguistic theories analysed and Muybridge, whose works that studied locomo- broke down words and concepts as the signifier tion and sequences surrounding man and ani- and the signified. Similarly, LeWitt creates his mal had a strong and significant impact on him. own personal ‘sign language’, communicating This influence can be seen through LeWitt’s re- grammar and syntax through the use of cubes lief series in which he studies sequential imagery, and spheres. Although the idea can be deemed such as Objectivity and Look, Look in 1962, or theoretical, it is not strictly mathematical, but ra- even Muybridge II, homage to the photographer ther poetic. in 1964. He also becomes intrigued by Russian Contructivism and its mechanical aesthetic. He It is important to note that LeWitt only ever crea- subsequently decides to reduce art to the essen- ted the concept behind each work; his assistants Biography (continued) realised the physical work itself. As of the mid- In 1988, as his participation to the Venice Bien- 80s, this strict conceptualism applied to both nial, Sol LeWitt invaded the interior walls of the his sculptures and his drawings led onto the de- Italian Pavillion. In 1993, LeWitt created a gra- composition of consistently more complex ini- phic work in wash tint measuring sixty-two feet tial forms. Certain works even transformed into high, dedicated to a specific site of his choice: furniture-like structures. the atrium of the High Museum of Art of Atlanta. In 1996, he introduced acrylic to his wall pain- In 1978, the MoMA in New York held an impor- tings. LeWitt described the colours of his pain- tant retrospective covering the last 15 years of tings as “excessive and vulgar”. The same year, LeWitt’s work. This consequently led to a criti- he received a commission for the new terminal cal re-evaluation of the artist by many people. at the National Airport of Washington to design Most people were hit by the powerful beauty of an eighteen-foot high medallion to be set in the the artworks, as well as the intellectual rigour floor of the main entrance. The work reflects behind each one. Even LeWitt himself seemed the essence of the modernist movement in art: overwhelmed by this exhibition. a monochrome painting, geometrical forms, an abnormal size and modular repetitions. Never- Certain aesthetical and structural changes in theless, LeWitt’s work falls under the category of his works were to follow, as well as the incor- conceptualism as, once again, it was his assis- poration of new concerns and influences. Af- tants who carried it out.