Was born into a family of Jews, immigrants from Russia. The boy was given the name Solomon, which he later shortened to Sol. The father of the future artist was a doctor and died when Sol was six years old. As a child, LeWitt studied at an art school for children and most of all loved drawing caricatures.
September 9, 1928, Hartford, Connecticut (the USA) - April 8, 2007, New York (the USA)
Sol LeWitt
description
Solomon LeWitt, an American artist, sculptor and theorist, played a leading role in the development of Conceptual art and Minimalism. Coming from a family of Russian-Jewish emigrants, he was inspired by the works of Russian avant-garde painters and Constructivists, especially Malevich, whose Black Square served as the basis for the emergence of his unique geometric aesthetics.
“Conceptual art is good only when the idea is good,” said the artist. All his works are subject to a single principle: the most important thing in the work is the idea, its intellectual component; the performance is secondary or even unnecessary at all. Having come to this conclusion, LeWitt stopped creating his works on his own, entrusting this to the workers and did not always completely control the result. The artist deliberately avoided the emotional impact of the works on the viewer, believing that art is an exact science that has its own laws and rules. All the works of Sol LeWitt are carefully thought out in advance, planned and verified to the smallest detail.
At the beginning of his creative career, LeWitt created wall panels with protruding parts and volumetric geometric sculptures. “Modular compositions”, structures consisting of “empty” cubes without faces, made him famous. From these cubes, the artist designed complex intricate compositions in which geometric elements are repeated and alternated among themselves, creating a harmonious rhythm and strict harmony.
Particularly noteworthy are the artist’s wall paintings, which are pure geometric abstractions. LeWitt fit these paintings so harmoniously into the space allotted for them that one of the owners of the gallery, where the artist created a temporary wall image, could not remove it, and asked the author to do it; Sol LeWitt did it without the slightest hesitation.
Key ideas:
– Sol LeWitt considered the idea the most important in the work of art and, therefore, considered art as an intellectual act. The process of creating a physical expression of his plan was of little interest to him, and the artist entrusted it to his assistants, working according to the principle of some venerable Renaissance artists who created the concept and composition; the painstaking accomplishment was assigned to apprentices. At the same time, LeWitt sometimes intentionally gave only general instructions and left the details to the discretion of the assistants, thereby reducing his influence on the final result. This attitude to art was revolutionary in the era of Abstract Expressionism. It called into question the leading role of the artist in the creation of the work, as well as the process of his physical interaction with the artistic space.
– The cube is the main unit in the works of Sol LeWitt. He used this simple geometric form to compose his famous “Modular Structures”, which could be either a stand-alone cube or a complex structure of many cubes connected in a certain sequence. Before each work, the artist compiled detailed sketches, which he learned through his work as a draftsman from famous architect Io Min Pei.
– Even though the works of Sol LeWitt consist of simplified forms, straight lines and limited colours, they differ in harmony and sophistication. Based on rigorous geometric calculations, they are irrational and are never repeated. The artist always created series, each of which was devoted to a certain aspect in his creative quest. Having created enough sculptures to satisfy his curiosity, he started working on a new series, which was just as unpredictable and theoretically justified as the previous ones.
– Unlike other representatives of Minimalism and abstract sculptors, Sol LeWitt did not seek to use industrial materials in his works. His works are traditional canvases, oil paints and wooden structures. Together with a mathematically accurate calculation of the shape of the object, he allowed random influences on its surface and let materials play a role in creating the overall composition.
1928
1946
1949
1951
1953
1955
1960
1965
1968
1978
1980
1988
Was born into a family of Jews, immigrants from Russia
Entered the University of Syracuse
At the insistence of his mother, he entered the University of Syracuse, and then continued his education at the University of Illinois. The first few semesters were hard for him, but by the end of this period, LeWitt was able to show his skills in several disciplines.
Won the Tiffany Foundation Prize
Won the Tiffany Foundation Prize for a series of graphic works. The prize was $ 1,000, which allowed him to spend time in Europe studying works of old masters.
Was drafted into the Korean War
Was drafted into the Korean War, where he served in the Special Forces. The artist was engaged in the creation of posters and leaflets and did not participate in hostilities. During the service, LeWitt visited the most famous places in China and Japan and admired the culture of the eastern countries.
Began working in one of the print media in New York
Upon returning to the United States, he attended courses of cartoonists and illustrators at the School of Visual Arts and began working in one of the print media in New York.
Worked at the studio of famous architect Jo Min Pei
Worked at the studio of famous architect Jo Min Pei. There, LeWitt learned drawing business, which helped him in the future to create accurate sketches of his complex geometric compositions.
Started working at the Museum of Modern Art
Started working at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. His staff at the museum were artists Robert Rayman, Dan Flavin, Gene Biri and Robert Mangold, with whom he established friendly relations. During that period, Sol LeWitt began to understand his place in art and developed the basic concepts of his work.
The first exhibition of the artist
The first exhibition of the artist at the gallery of John Daniels. There were works of Sol LeWitt in the form of open geometric shapes, which the author called “structures”.
He wrote the theoretical work "Paragraphs on Conceptual Art"
He wrote the theoretical work “Paragraphs on Conceptual Art”, which became the manifesto of Conceptualists. At that time, cube became the dominant form in his work, which LeWitt stripped of its faces, making it “transparent.”
The Museum of Modern Art in New York hosted a large retrospective exhibition of the artist
The Museum of Modern Art in New York hosted a large retrospective exhibition of the artist. This event attracted the attention of the public to the artist’s works and made his name world-famous. Thanks to the exhibition, LeWitt himself rethought some of his tricks and kept on improving his working methods.
Moved to Italy in Spoletto
Married Carol Androgio and moved to Italy in Spoletto. Sol LeWitt worked mainly on large sculptural compositions and created wall paintings in different cities.
Returned to the USA
Returned to the USA. The artist stayed in Chester, Connecticut, where he lived until the end of his days.
description
In this work, Sol LeWitt used two white cubes, which he connected slightly shifting them relatively each other. According to the artist, the most interesting characteristic of the cube is that it practically does not represent any interest in itself and therefore serves as an excellent material for its meaningless conceptual compositions.
1972
description
One of the well-known modular structures of Sol LeWitt consists of five cubes horizontally interconnected. The cube became the main form of the artist’s works in the mid-1960s, and all of his sculptures of this period consisted of these geometric elements, with different sizes and colours.
1965