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Born in 1928 in Hartford, Connecticut, LeWitt moved to New York in 1953, just as Abstract Expressionism was beginning to gain public recognition and was dominating contemporary art. He found various jobs to support himself, first in the design department at Seventeen magazine, doing paste-ups, mechanicals, and photostats, and later, for the young architect I.M. Pei as a graphic designer. This contact proved formative, for as LeWitt would later write, "an architect doesn't go off with a shovel and dig his foundation and lay every brick. He's still an artist." | |
| Sol LeWitt Wall Drawing #340 1980 |
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In 1960
LeWitt took a job at The Museum of Modern Art, working first at the book
counter and later as a night receptionist. He met other young artists working
there (Dan Flavin, Robert Mangold, Robert Ryman, and Scott Burton), placing
him in the midst of a community of young artists searching for a new direction
"that would lead away from the pervasive but useless ideas of Abstract Expressionism."
For LeWitt and his colleagues, Abstract Expressionism had become, by the
early 1960s, an entrenched style that offered few new creative possibilities
for young artists. In contrast to the psychologically loaded brushwork of
Abstraction Expressionism, LeWitt began to create works that utilized simple
and impersonal forms, exploring repetition and variations of a basic form
or line as a way to achieve works of a complex and satisfying nature. Perhaps
most importantly, he evolved a working method for creating artworks based
on simple directions, works that could be executed by others rather than
the artist himself. The fertility of this approach is demonstrated by the
aesthetic richness and variety of the wall drawings in this exhibition,
none of which were drawn by LeWitt. LeWitt has never forsaken the fundamental approach that he developed in the 1960s, emphasizing ideas over psychological expression and letting other people bring these ideas into physical and visual form. Over the years, however, his work has grown more complex in its effect and more complicated in its execution. The work from the 1960s is the most austere and straightforward, while work from the 1970s inventively compounds the ideas and forms of the prior decade. The early 1980s saw a marked shift involving sensual color and surfaces, myriad geometric shapes and their permutations, and a more explicitly expressive overall character. In the past five years, the vitality and invention of his work has been especially pronounced, with forms of undulating waves and swirling nets and colors that are often hot and bold. Back to the overview For further information on this exhibition, please refer to any or all of the following sources: SFMOMA press release: SFMOMA presents first Sol LeWitt retrospective in 20 years SFMOMA exhibition catalogue: Sol LeWitt available for online purchase in the SFMOMA MuseumStore |
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Copyright © 1996-2008 San Francisco Museum of Modern Art 
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Sol LeWitt: A Retrospective is organized by the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. This exhibition is sponsored by Banana Republic and Charles Schwab. Significant support for the exhibition has been provided by the Modern Art Council, an auxiliary of SFMOMA, by the Henry Luce Foundation, and by a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts. Additional generous support is provided by Mimi and Peter Haas, Patricia and William Wilson III, and Henry S. McNeil Jr. Hotel sponsor: The Argent Hotel.   |
