Saturday, August 28, 2010

Sol LeWitt

This is #541.  Some college students followed Sol's written instrucions and were able to complete his vision.  It was later taken down

http://www.blackbird.vcu.edu/v8n1/gallery/smith_e/lewitt_541.shtml
http://www.metroartwork.com/Sol-Lewitt-biography-artwork-m-118.html

I personally had never heard of Sol Lewitt until this class.  When I initially saw some of his work, I wasn't overly impressed.  I thought to myself, "I could do that". Well, I started to read about him and his work and then I became intrigued.  This man was truly amazing on how he envisioned art. 
This was the certificate of instructions for drawing #541. Each pieceof art came with a certificate of written instructions.
Sol Lewitt was born in 1928 and died fairly recent in 2007.  He really started receiving recognition in the 60's for his "Conceptual" and "minimalist" artwork.  He did both art in 2-D and 3-D.  He considered his 3-D work to be structures, not so much sculptures.  He liked focusing on geometric shapes like cubes.  When it came to the "conceptual" approach to his art, I really became fascinated.  Part of his art process was to have an idea first and then have a systematic plan of instructions so that anyone should be able to execute the idea for the piece of artwork he thought of .   He did around 1100 pieces of wall art.  His intentions, when doing these wall art drawings , were to be instructional, collaborative and temporary.  I really thought this was such a great way to express art.  It was different from what I am used to and I liked the idea that the instructions came with  his pieces of art.  I also liked the idea that it was a group effort to reach the outcome of his idea.

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