Sol LeWitt : Wall Drawings (1968 + )

Sol LeWitt is seen as the primary influence upon both the Minimal and Conceptual art movements in 1960s USA and wrote a manifesto for Minimal Art… which was not a long document.

Much of LeWitt’s art is superficially similar to the Suprematist aesthetics of Malevich, though these two approaches are ideologically at odds. Whereas Malevich used simple, non-representational geometrics to approach grand spiritual and social concepts, LeWitt attempted to create art that was nothing more than what the viewer directly experiences in their encounter with the work. This was the essence of Minimalism. LeWitt wanted art that referenced nothing but the work itself – a contained reality of the piece. Art that was not a symbol or indicator of something else, yet achieved the satisfying grace and gravitas of other ‘high art’.

Like Duchamp, LeWitt saw, not the end-product, but the concept behind the art as of prime importance and described the concept as a ‘machine’ that creates the art. He then became fascinated with the idea of transmitting the concept in a pure form which could then be interpreted and re-interpreted by others.

Gallery 2 of the Centre Pompidou-Metz during the 2012 Sol LeWitt retrospective
exhibition: Wall drawings from 1968 - 2007 (source: Wikimedia Commons)

In his series of wall drawings, which he began in 1968 and continued to develop until his death in 2007, he wrote sets of instructions which were sent to galleries where assistants or gallery staff would follow them, step by step, using various media to draw directly onto the walls in the exhibition space. Most of these wall drawings were created using a limited visual vocabulary of horizontal, vertical and diagonal lines, often in graphite pencil, sometimes using coloured crayons and inks. Some of these instructions were highly detailed containing dimensions and precise angles measured from defined points. Others were deliberately vague, such as Wall Drawing 103 the instructions for which were: “Not straight, vertical lines, from floor to ceiling, using as much wall area as is determined by the draftsperson.”

Sol LeWitt’s Wall Drawings were installation art: they would vary from venue to venue depending upon the dimensions and shapes of the available gallery walls. Although the concept was clearly expressed, the results were adaptable and varied due to many factors including the size of the wall, the skill of the practitioners and their personal interpretation of the instructions. Small errors and inconsistencies would also occur during the execution of the drawings, and so the same concept could result in different outcomes each time. These works were also largely unsaleable, being drawn directly onto the walls, and were erased at the end of the exhibitions. However, anyone possessing the instructions could recreate them… You or I could have a Sol LeWitt Wall Drawing in our own homes on any available wall we wanted it – we just need the instructions expressing the concept and our own responses to that concept.

In some ways LeWitt removed the hand of the artist from the creative equation. His instructions still exist, although he does not, yet his works can be created anew and the resultant drawings can be considered as original now as they ever were.

MORE:

Excellent site hosted at Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art presenting a retrospective of LeWitt's wall drawings. Plenty of images and info including an 'audio-tour' (free to download)...