Sol LeWitt was one of the most influential artists in the Conceptual Art movement. “In the catalog for his 1978 retrospective at New York’s Museum of Modern Art, Bernice Rose, Curator of Drawings, says that his innovative work drawing directly on walls ‘was as important for drawing as Pollock’s use of the drip technique had been for painting in the 1950s’” (Crownpoint). He based his work on grids and shapes and can be classified as a minimalist but his work embodies non-conventional beauty. He was camera shy and turned down awards in fear of being photographed in the paper which was a stark contrast to his bold works that are revered well into the 21st century.
Sol LeWitt was born in Hartford, Connecticut in 1928. In 1949, he graduated Syracuse University with a Bachelors of Fine Arts. Sol LeWitt then won the prestigious Tiffany award, only given to artist who show promise but are not globally acclaimed. This award granted LeWitt to monetary stability to travel through Europe, and study his craft. He was then drafted into the army in 1951 and sent to fight in the Korean War. In 1953, he studied at the School of Visual Arts, as an emerging graphic designer. He dabbled in painting, but was actually intrigued with Russian Constructivism, which embodied symmetry. He then discovered “Eadweard Muybridge's photographs, [which are] sequential pictures of people and animals in motion, which he came across one day in a book that somebody had left in his apartment. From all this he saw a way forward. It was to go backward” (International Hereld Tribune).
After inspiration had struck he decided start from the basics and focused on concepts. LeWitt published, “Paragraphs on Conceptual Art” in 1967, this was his breakthrough piece, the first globally recognized of his works. One of LeWitt’s first museum exhibitions was at the Museum Haus Lange in Krefeld, Germany in 1969. After producing several significant conceptual art pieces such as Arcs in Four Directions and Run I-IV, LeWitt passed away on April 9th, 2007. He was pivotal in creating an era that encouraged thinking, ideas, and concepts.
Works Cited:
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. "Sol LeWitt: A Retrospective." 27 October 2008
Crown Point Press. "About the Artist – Sol LeWitt." 27 October 2008 http://www.crownpoint.com/artists/159/about-artist
Brown, Kathan. "Sol LeWitt." 27 October 2008
Kimmelman, Michael. "Sol LeWitt, Master of Conceptualism, Dies at 78." 9 April 2007. 27 October 2008
Images Cited:
Cunningham, Bill. "Sol LeWitt, Master of Conceptualism, Dies at 78." 9 April 2007. 27 October 2008
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