Sol LeWitt's early sculptural works used geometric shapes, seriality and pre-determined structures to break away from the personal and emotive gestures of Abstract Expressionism. The artist’s numerous Wall Drawings employ systems which enable line to exist as an independent entity and take the form of a set of instructions which are then produced by assistants. His early works are characteristically monochrome, often articulated in charcoal and pencil, but LeWitt later introduced vibrant colour palettes into his practice.

The single room work included in ARTIST ROOMS, Wall Drawing #1136 2004, is a late example where coloured straight and non-straight lines, about twenty-two meters in length, are painted directly onto walls of a gallery space to create a three-dimensional environment which surrounds the viewer.

Sol LeWitt was one of the pioneers of Conceptual and Minimalist art during the 1960s, coining the term ‘conceptual art’ in 1967. He rejected the subjective and expressionistic art forms that dominated the mainstream during the 1950s and early 1960s in the United States and instead strove to privilege the idea.

In his famous Sentences on Conceptual Art written in 1969, LeWitt noted that, ‘Conceptual artists are mystics rather than rationalists. They leap to conclusions which logic cannot reach’, continuing, ‘Once the idea of the piece is established in the artist's mind and the final form is decided, the process is carried out blindly. There are many side effects that the artist cannot imagine. These may be used as ideas for new works’ (quoted in Harrison and Wood 2003, pp.849-51).

Reference

Sol LeWitt, ‘Sentences on Conceptual Art (May 1969)’ in Charles Harrison and Paul Wood (eds.), Art in Theory 1900-2000: An Anthology of Changing Ideas, Malden, MA 2003, pp.849-51.

Solomon "Sol" LeWitt (September 9, 1928 – April 8, 2007) was an American artist linked to various movements, including conceptual art and minimalism. LeWitt came to fame in the late 1960s with his wall drawings and "structures" (a term he preferred instead of "sculptures") but was prolific in a wide range of media including drawing, printmaking, photography, painting, installation, and artist's books. He has been the subject of hundreds of solo exhibitions in museums and galleries around the world since 1965. The first biography of the artist, Sol LeWitt: A Life of Ideas, by Lary Bloom, was published by Wesleyan University Press in the spring of 2019.

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