Friendship Bracelet: Sol LeWitt

Wednesday, December 3, 2008

Sol LeWitt

Wall Drawing #462. On four walls, one room, arcs 4 inches (10 cm) wide, from the midpoints of four sides, drawn with alternating bands of gray and black ink wash. January 1986.

A display of the work of Sol LeWitt, A Wall Drawing Retrospective, is taking residence at MASS MoCA in North Adams, MA from now until, well, 2033. The 25-year long exhibit follows LeWitt's trajectory from 1968 til his death last year. The exhibit rests in MASS MoCA's mill building #7, specially chosen by LeWitt and renovated to hold as much of his work as possible. There's three whole floors dedicated to this, starting with his early work on the first floor, his middle years on the second, and his late career on the third. The content evolves from basic exercises in line and color to more involved arrangements of colors, shades, and textures, and ends up in a brilliant combination of vibrance, movement, and complexity. It's very overwhelming the entire walk through, which could take a couple hours. Even the less over-the-top pieces are amazing. Every piece is larger than life, on giant scale, product of either laborious calculations and number crunching or creative ways to express the idea of basic movement with simple building blocks.

Wall Drawing #419. The wall is bordered and divided horizontally and vertically into four equal parts with a 6-inch (15 cm) black ink band. Each quarter has alternating parallel 6-inch (15 cm) bands of white and color ink bands. Upper left: gray; upper right: yellow; lower left: red; lower right: blue. September 1984.

Wall Drawing #38. Tissue paper cut into 1½-inch (4 cm) squares and inserted into holes in the gray pegboard walls. All holes in the walls are filled randomly. April 1970.

Wall Drawing #422. The room (or wall) is divided vertically into fifteen parts. All one-, two-, three-, and four-part combinations of four colors, using color ink washes. November 1984. (foreground)
Wall Drawing #681C. A wall divided vertically into four equal squares separated and bordered by black bands. Within each square, bands in one of four directions, each with color ink washes superimposed. August 1993. (background)

Wall Drawing #335. On four black walls, white vertical parallel lines, and in the center of the walls, eight geometric figures (including cross, X) within which are white horizontal parallel lines. The vertical lines do not enter the figures. May 1980.

Wall Drawing #396. A black five-pointed star, a yellow six-pointed star, a red seven-pointed star, and a blue eight-pointed star, drawn in color and India ink washes. May 1983.
DH for scale.