Sol LeWitt. Line and Color

The Herakleidon Museum will present, from October 1st, 2011 to January 29th, 2012, an exhibition of works by the American artist Sol LeWitt. All the works, which were donated by the artist himself, are on loan from the New Britain Museum of American Art (Connecticut, USA). The exhibition has the support of the U.S. Embassy in Athens.The exhibition comprises 115 works by Sol LeWitt are mainly prints (such as lithographs, etchings, and woodcuts), but his first oil painting as well as gouache, monotypes, and photographs are also included. The artist’s works are known for their geometric shapes and rich colors.

Sol LeWitt (1928-2007) was born in Connecticut, USA and majored in art at Syracuse University (New York, USA). After serving in the US army during the Korean War, he moved to New York where he studied at the School of Visual Arts and worked at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), both in the bookshop and as a night receptionist. He became known in the late 1960s for his wall drawings and his sculptures or “structures” as he called them, but he also created a large number of works in other media, such as drawing, painting, printing, and photography. At first his work was associated with Minimalism, but was later related so closely to Conceptual art that he is considered by many to be the father of this movement. In 1967, he wrote “Paragraphs on Conceptual Art,” in which he states that the idea, or concept, of a work is of greater importance that the physical form through which the artist conveys his idea. It is also believed that Sol LeWitt was the first to mention the term Conceptual art when he wrote: “I will refer to the kind of art I create as conceptual art.”Sol LeWitt’s work was the subject of a great number of exhibitions, both during his lifetime and after his death. His works are in the permanent collections of many major museums all over the world and are also installed in public parks and buildings.

Just as a musical composer creates a composition, which the musician then interprets in his own personal style, Sol LeWitt wrote detailed instructions for the creation of his wall drawings, which were then executed by others: the importance was in the idea. The cube held an important place in the early work of the artist, but beginning in 1980 he also started using the triangle and the circle. Through the use of isometric projection his two-dimensional works gave the impression of three-dimensional forms. When he died, the New York Times described LeWitt as “…a patron and friend of artists, both old and young… the opposite of the artist as celebrity”. Whoever knew him personally will never forget his generosity.

Sol Le Witt
Line and Color