LeWitt, Sol

LeWitt, Sol
▪ 2008
Solomon LeWitt 
      American sculptor, printmaker, and draftsman

born Sept. 9, 1928 , Hartford, Conn.

died April 8, 2007 , New York, N.Y.
was credited with helping to usher in conceptual art and minimalism as major movements of the post-World War II era with wall drawings that featured basic geometric forms (the triangle, sphere, or quadrilateral) and four basic colours (red, yellow, blue, and black); he allowed his assistants to execute his works from written instructions that resulted in one-of-a-kind creations that might be erased when the walls on which they were painted were primed for another exhibition. LeWitt's sculptures—or structures, as he preferred to refer to them—were often made of baked white enamel cubes and included such classics as Forty-seven Three-Part Variations on Three Different Kinds of Cubes (1967; reconstructed in 1974, with 56 variations), Large Modular Cube (1969), and Cubes with Hidden Cubes (1977). After LeWitt moved from New York to Italy during the 1980s, his style took a radical shift. He began using colour prodigiously; he added ink washes, which allowed him to create new colours; and he introduced curves and free forms. His later works were shown at a 2000 retrospective that was organized by the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and traveled to several major cities, including New York City and Chicago.

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▪ American artist
born Sept. 9, 1928, Hartford, Conn., U.S.
died April 8, 2007, New York, N.Y.

      American artist whose work provides a link between minimalism and conceptual art.

      LeWitt was the son of Russian immigrants. He attended Syracuse University (B.F.A., 1949) and, following military service in Japan and Korea, moved in 1953 to New York City. There he worked as a graphic designer for the architect I.M. Pei (Pei, I.M.) in 1955 and 1956. Following a brief period of trying out the Abstract Expressionist style in the 1950s, LeWitt in the early 1960s began to pursue an essentialist approach to art that was less emotional yet still rich in speculation and interest. He started to work serially, concentrating on sculptures of various gridlike axial arrangements of modular white aluminum, wood, or metal cubes.

      His work in this vein led him to conclude that the planning of a work of art would always be more significant than its execution as an object. In a statement that became a credo of conceptual art, LeWitt wrote in Artforum magazine in 1967:

In conceptual art the idea or concept is the most important aspect of the work…all of the planning and decisions are made beforehand and the execution is a perfunctory affair. The idea becomes a machine that makes the art.

      Begun in 1968 and running to more than 1,000 examples, his extensive series of numbered wall drawings applied these principles. LeWitt provided written instructions and sometimes a small sketch for each of these abstract works, and the drawing (usually a monumental work painted directly on a gallery wall, as in Wall Drawing # 652 [1990]) was executed by his assistants and others. LeWitt's sculptures, prints, and drawings examined endlessly thoughtful and surprising possibilities of visual extrapolation within a concentration on pattern, geometry, and repetition.

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Universalium. 2010.

Игры ⚽ Поможем решить контрольную работу

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  • LEWITT, SOL — (1928– ), U.S. sculptor, printmaker, draftsman, conceptual artist. LeWitt worked serially, exploring the same concept in several media: books, prints, wall drawings, drawings on paper, and structures (the artist s preferred terminology for his… …   Encyclopedia of Judaism

  • Sol Lewitt — Sol LeWitt, né le 9 septembre 1928 à Hartford dans le Connecticut aux États Unis d Amérique, mort le 8 avril 2007 à New York, est un artiste américain minimaliste et conceptuel. Biographie Ancien élève de l Université de Syracuse, il voyage en… …   Wikipédia en Français

  • Lewitt — Sol LeWitt Sol LeWitt, né le 9 septembre 1928 à Hartford dans le Connecticut aux États Unis d Amérique, mort le 8 avril 2007 à New York, est un artiste américain minimaliste et conceptuel. Biographie Ancien élève de l Université de Syracuse, il… …   Wikipédia en Français

  • Sol Le Witt — Sol LeWitt Sol LeWitt, né le 9 septembre 1928 à Hartford dans le Connecticut aux États Unis d Amérique, mort le 8 avril 2007 à New York, est un artiste américain minimaliste et conceptuel. Biographie Ancien élève de l Université de Syracuse, il… …   Wikipédia en Français

  • LEWITT (S.) — LEWITT SOL (1928 ) Avec Don Judd, Dan Flavin et Carl Andre, Sol LeWitt est un des représentants les plus importants de l’art minimal. Son activité englobe aussi bien le dessin que la sculpture et l’édition. Né dans le Connecticut, LeWitt… …   Encyclopédie Universelle

  • SOL — ist der Vorname von: Sol Lesser (1890–1980), US amerikanischer Filmproduzent und Filmregisseur Sol LeWitt (1928–2007), US amerikanischer Künstler Sol Campbell (*1974), Englischer Fußballspieler Sol ist der Familienname folgender Personen: Ed Sol… …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • Sol Lewitt — Black Form, entworfen für die Skulptur.Projekte 1987, Standort heute: Hamburg Altona Sol LeWitt (* 9. September 1928 in Hartford Connecticut; † 8. April 2007 in New York) war ein …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • Sol LeWitt — Black Form Dedicated to the Missing Jews, Altona City Hall, Altona, Hamburg, Alemania, 1987. Sol LeWitt ( 9 de septiembre de 1928, Hartford, Connecticut, † 8 de abril de 2007, Nueva York). Artista ligado a varios movimientos incluyendo arte… …   Wikipedia Español

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