Sol Lewitt was an American artist born in 1928 who is regarded as a founder of Minimal and Conceptual Art. He was interested in ideas rather than objects and believed that the concept or instructions for a work of art could be the art itself. Lewitt created works using basic geometric forms and lines, sometimes arranged mathematically or architecturally. He gave instructions for works to be executed by others, challenging the role of the artist. Lewitt taught at several universities and exhibited widely before passing away from cancer in 2007 at the age of 78.

1. Sol Lewitt: A Synopsis
By: Nick Pericle
@nickpericle

2. This is Sol.
- Born September 9, 1928
- Born to Jewish immigrants from Russia
- Went to art classes as a child
- BFA from Syracuse University in 1949
- Served in Korean War
- NYC in 1953
- Studied at the school of visual arts and
worked at Seventeen magazine
- 1960 started working at MOMA

3. More on Sol.
- At the MoMA he worked with a lot of
other people including Robert Ryman,
Dan Flavin, Gene Beery, and Robert
Mangold
- He taught at NYU
- He taught at the School of Visual Arts
- In 1980 he went to Spoleto, Italy
- He returned to the states in the late
1980s , and lived in Chester Connecticut
-
- He died at 78 from cancer
complications

5. Why Sol?
• Regarded as a founder of Minimal and Conceptual Art.
• “I wasn’t really that interested in objects. I was interested in
ideas.”
• Conceptual art is an intellectual, pragmatic act.
• The IDEA itself could be the art.
• Just as an architect creates a blueprint for a building and then
turns the project over to a construction crew – an artist can
conceive a work and then delegate it’s production, or never make
it at all.
• He loves two and three-dimensional works
• Wall drawings, towers, pyramids, geometric forms, and
progressions

6. Visual Art
• Lines, basic colors, simplified shapes
• He would take these and apply them in
different ways
• Sometimes mathematical, and sometimes
architectural
• Neither predictable or logical
• The directions for producing a work of art
became the work itself

7. Visual Art
• Lines, basic colors, simplified shapes
• He would take these and apply them in
different ways
• Sometimes mathematical, and sometimes
architectural
• Neither predictable or logical
• The directions for producing a work of art
became the work itself

8. If you see his work in the gallery…
• He gives instructions to the gallery (draw this
many lines, do this, etc) and they actually
execute on the art
• It’s very systematic way of drawing a
‘blueprint’ and then letting people actually
implement the art work.
• LeWitt challenged some very fundamental
beliefs about art, including the authority of
the artist in the production of the work

10. Wall Structure Blue

11. Wall Structure Blue
Oil and pigment on canvas and
wood.
It imitates traditional painting with
the red bulls-eye in the center that
calls attention to an imagined
narrative and to the symmetry
imposed by convention
He got this from Jasper Johns’ target
pieces, which LeWitt saw at the
MoMA.

12. Jasper Johns’ Target (inspiration for
wall structure blue)

13. Standing Open Structure Black (1964)

14. Standing Open Structure Black (1964)
The shape is abstract.
It is 96 inches tall
It is supposed to resemble a
skeleton, with solemn dignity and
shock value
It is very simple
The simplicity challenges the notion
of completeness

15. Serial Project #1

16. Serial Project #1
This project is supposed to represent more the idea than the form.
The idea is supposed to obey certain rules, and the form will show once those rules
have been completed. This is made with baked enamel on steel and aluminum.
“The aim of the artist would not be to instruct the viewer but to give him information”

17. Buried Cube Containing an Object of
Importance but Little Value (1968)

18. Buried Cube Containing an Object of
Importance but Little Value (1968)
These are photographs. They
refer to the process.
This work is supposed to help
you know that this process took
place. If you didn’t have these
photos, you would never know.
“The execution is a perfunctory
affair. The idea becomes a
machine that makes the art.”

19. Inverted Six Towers

20. Four Sided Pyramid

21. Splotches

22. Can you spot Sol?

23. Two of his works

25. Sol.
• He reduced art to a few basic shapes
• The idea is what matters
• The idea is the art
• “He didn’t dictate. He accepted contradiction
and paradox, the inconclusiveness of logic.”
• “Why not?”
• “A life in art is an unimaginable and
unpredictable experience.”

26. Sol.

27. Sol.