Sol LeWitt

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Black Form , designed for the Skulptur.Projekte 1987, location today: Hamburg-Altona

Sol LeWitt (born September 9, 1928 in Hartford , Connecticut , † April 8, 2007 in New York ) was an American artist of minimalism . He developed the concept of conceptual art (Engl. Conceptual Art ).

life and work

Sculpture by Sol LeWitt, Yorkshire Sculpture Park

LeWitt attended Syracuse University in New York from 1945 to 1949 before going to Korea and Japan for a year with the US Army in 1951 . In 1953 he attended the "Cartoonist and Illustration School" in New York and worked from 1955 to 1956 as a graphic designer for the architect Ieoh Ming Pei . From 1960 to 1965 he worked at the Museum of Modern Art , where he met Dan Flavin , Robert Ryman , Robert Mangold and Scott Burton . Between 1964 and 1971 he worked at various institutes, such as the "Museum of Arts School", taught at the Cooper Union , as well as at the School of Visual Arts and at the "Education Department" of New York University . In 1976, together with Lucy Lippard , he founded the Printed Matter publishing house to organize the distribution of artist books.

Sol LeWitt's work was based on the constructivism of the Bauhaus and the Dutch artists' association De Stijl . Sol LeWitt further developed the ideas of these styles and experimented with architectural spatial structures, grid patterns and grid constructions, which he reduced to a minimum. The artist recorded his work in numerous documentations that reflect his understanding of art theory .

In his theoretical work Paragraphs on Conceptual Art from 1967, with which he became an important stimulus for Conceptual Art , he defined his art as “conceptual” - in contrast to the optically oriented “perceptual art” - because it is primarily spiritual for the viewer Is interesting. The focus is on the idea, the concept of a work.

In his works, which have also been exhibited several times in the “Museum of Modern Art” in New York, lattice structures made of wood and / or metal appear again and again . Early works are drawings and prints with fine line and grid structures as well as large geometric grid objects. Large colored wall drawings followed from 1968. From 1968 to 1982 Sol LeWitt was a four-time participant in the documenta in Kassel .

In 1979 Sol LeWitt developed a video work for Lucinda Childs dance piece Dance . During the live performances, film recordings of the piece are projected synchronously onto the stage via a meter-high, transparent screen, so that the dancers interact with their cinematic alter ego . The video projection, in which the dancers dance on a gridded floor, serves as the only stage setting for the piece. Dance is now one of the classics of the avant-garde and has had a decisive influence on postmodern dance .

Sol LeWitt lived and worked in Chester , Connecticut and in Spoleto , Italy.

Exhibitions (selection)

Public collections

Public room

Open Cubes in Frankfurt am Main, 1991
Four Part Piece (four-part sculpture) in Ostfildern, 1992

literature

  • Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen, Düsseldorf (ed.): Insights. The 20th Century in the North Rhine-Westphalia Art Collection, Düsseldorf , Hatje Cantz Verlag, Ostfildern-Ruit 2000; ISBN 3-7757-0853-7

Web links

Commons : Sol LeWitt  - collection of images, videos and audio files
personal data
SURNAME LeWitt, Sol
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American artist
DATE OF BIRTH September 9, 1928
PLACE OF BIRTH Hartford , Connecticut
DATE OF DEATH April 8, 2007
Place of death New York City