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Sol LeWitt

SELECTED WORKS
Cube Without A Cube
2005
Shaped from solid slabs of syntactic polyurethane and painted in lacquer

Structure is 6 x 6 x 6 inches on a base measuring 12 x 12 x 1 inches
Edition of 6
Signed and numbered on bottom of base
(Inventory #35877)

Six Cube Variations
2005
Acrylic on lacquer painted base

Edition of 6
8 x 7 1/4 x 33 inches
Each variation: 2 x 2 x 6 inches
Base: 33 x 8 x 1 inches
Signed and numbered on bottom of base
(Inventory #35879)

Horizontal Lines, Black and Gray
2004
Gouache on paper

Image/paper size:  15 x 44 1/2 inches  (38.1 x 113 cm)
Signed and dated lower right in graphite
(Inventory #30198)

Lines in Four Directions, Black/White
2004
Linocut

Image size: 3 1/4 x 12 1/4 inches (8.3 x 31.1 cm)
Paper size: 8 3/4 x 17 3/4 inches (22.2 x 45.1 cm)
Edition of 100, plus 15 AP
Signed and numbered lower right in graphite
(Inventory #32893)

Untitled (Purple)
2004
Lithograph with aquatint and etching

Edition of 30
Image size: 30 1/8 x 30 1/8 inches (76.5 x 76.5 cm)
Plate size: 31 x 31 inches (78.7 x 78.7 cm)
Paper size: 35 3/4 x 36 inches (90.8 x 91.4 cm)
Signed and numbered in Roman Numerals lower right in graphite
(Inventory #33888)

Open Cubes in Color on Color
2003
Set of thirty linocuts

Edition of 30
Image/plate size: 11 x 11 inches each (28 x 28 cm each)
Paper size: 14 x 14 inches each (35.6 x 35.6 cm each)
Signed and numbered in roman numerals lower right on colophon only in graphite
(Inventory #35080)

Emblemata
2000
Set of fifteen monotypes with colophon page

Edition of 70
Image/paper size: 11 1/4 x 22 3/8 inches each (28.6 x 56.8 cm each)
Signed and numbered on colophon page
(Inventory #33878)

Parallel Curves
2000
Gouache on paper, unique

Image/paper size: 22 1/2 x 29 1/2 inches (57.2 x 74.9 cm)
Signed and dated ‘S. LeWitt 00’ lower right in graphite
(Inventory #31000)

Parallel Curves
2000
Lithograph with etching and aquatint

Image size: 24 x 24 inches (61 x 61 cm)
Paper size: 36 x 36 inches (91.4 x 91.4 cm)
Edition of 30
Signed and numbered lower right in graphite
(Inventory #35750)

Arcs and Bands in Color – Three
1999
Silkscreen

Image size: 29 x 35 1/4 inches (73.6 x 89.5 cm)
Paper size: 30 7/8 x 37 inches (78.4 x 94 cm)
Edition of 50, AP 2/20
Signed and numbered lower right in graphite
(Inventory #33868)

Eight Small Etchings/Color
1999
Set of eight color hard ground etchings

Edition of 40
Image size: 4 x 4 inches each (10.2 x 10.2 cm each)
Paper size: 8 x 8 inches each (20.3 x 20.3 cm each)
Signed and numbered lower right in graphite on each sheet
(Inventory #34000)

Squiggly Lines (Lines Not Straight, Not Touching, Red on Blue)
1997
Unique silkscreen monoprint

Image/paper size: 56 x 56 inches (142.2 x 142.2 cm)
Annotated and signed ‘2/S.LeWitt’ lower right in graphite
(Inventory #34947)

Wavy Horizontal Lines (Diptych)
1996
Etching with aquatint and photogravure

Overall paper/image size: 28 x 100 inches (71.1 x 254 cm overall)
Edition of 36
Signed and numbered lower right on right sheet
(Inventory #32884)

Brushstrokes
1995
Gouache on paper with deckled edge

Paper size: 11 1/4 x 15 inches (28.6 x 38.1 cm)
Signed and dated lower right in graphite
(Inventory #35249)

Brushstrokes in All Directions
1994
Silkscreen

Edition of 500
Image size: 16 x 16 inches (40.6 x 40.6 cm)
Paper size: 20 x 20 inches (50.8 x 50.8 cm)
Signed lower right and numbered lower left
(Inventory #29380)

Brushstrokes in Different Colors in Two Directions
1993
Etching

Image/paper size: 47 x 29 1/2 inches (119.4 x 75 cm)
Frame size: 50 x 32 7/16 inches (127 x 82.4 cm)
Edition of 35
Signed lower right and numbered lower left in graphite
(Inventory #33563)

All One, Two, Three, and Four-Part Combinations of Gray, Yellow, Red and Blue
1991
Set of fifteen etchings with aquatint

Edition of 10
Image size: 7 1/2 x 7 1/2 inches each (19.1 x 19.1 cm each)
Plate size: 7 3/4 x 7 3/4 inches each (19.7 x 19.7 cm each)
Paper size: 14 x 14 inches each (35.56 x 35.56 cm each)
Signed ‘LeWitt’ and numbered lower right on each sheet
(Inventory #35469)

Cube
1991
Gouache on paper, unique

Image size: 20 1/2 x 28 1/4 inches (52.1 x 71.8 cm)
Paper size: 22 x 29 3/4 inches (55.9 x 75.6 cm)
Frame size: 24 5/8 x 32 1/4 inches (62.5 x 81.9 cm)
Signed and dated ‘S. LeWitt 91’ lower right in graphite
(Inventory #30989)

Fifteen Equal Arcs from the Midpoint of the Bottom, with All One, Two, Three and Four part Combinations of Four Colors
1990
Etching with aquatint

Image size: 31 x 12 7/8 inches (78.7 x 32.7 cm)
Paper size: 36 1/2 x 18 1/2 inches (92.7 x 47 cm)
Edition of 30
Signed and numbered lower right
(Inventory #35451)

Forms Derived from a Cubic Rectangle #01
1990
Etching with aquatint

Image size: 14 7/8 x 20 15/16 inches (37.8 x 53.2 cm)
Plate size: 15 3/8 x 21 1/2 inches (39.1 x 54.6 cm)
Paper size: 20 x 26 inches (50.8 x 66 cm)
Edition of 20
Signed and numbered lower right in graphite
(Inventory #35466)

Horizontal Bands, Colors Superimposed
1988
Silkscreen on Arches Cover paper

Set of three silkscreens
Edition of 25
Image/paper size: 28 1/2 x 28 1/2 inches each (72.4 x 72.4 cm each)
Signed and numbered lower right on each sheet
(Inventory #35444)

All One, Two, Three & Four-Part Combinations of Four Transparent Colors
1985
Color silkscreen

Edition of 35
Image size: 35 1/2 x 32 inches (90.2 x 81.3 cm)
Paper size: 38 1/4 x 36 inches (97.2 x 91.4 cm)
Signed and numbered lower right in graphite
(Inventory #35439)

Eight Squares with a Different Color in Each Half Square (Divided Horizontally and Vertically)
1980
Color silkscreen

Image size: 15 x 31 inches (38.1 x 78.7 cm)
Paper size: 22 x 38 inches (55.9 x 96.5 cm)
Edition of 40
Signed and numbered lower right in graphite
(Inventory #35334)

Lines In Color on Color From Corners Sides and Centers to Specific Points on a Grid
1978
Set of nine silkscreens with cover sheet

Image/Paper size: 30 x 30 inches each (76.2 x 76.2 cm each)
Edition of 25
Signed and numbered lower right on each sheet in graphite
(Inventory #35328)

The Location of Fourteen Points
1975
Etching with aquatint

Edition of 25, 10 AP
Image size: 7 7/8 x 7 1/4 inches (20 x 18.4 cm)
Paper size: 9 1/8 x 9 1/8 inches (23.2 x 23.2 cm)
Signed and numbered lower right in graphite
(Inventory #32041)
Krakow 1975.11

Five Silkscreen Prints
1971
Set of five silkscreens

Edition of 40
Image size: 14 x 14 inches each (#s 1, 3, 4 and 5) (35.6 x 35.6 cm each), 14 x 9 3/8 inches (#2) (35.6 x 23.8 cm)
Paper size: 20 x 20 inches each (50.8 x 50.8 cm each)
Signed lower right, numbered lower left on each sheet
(Inventory #18007)
Krakow 1971.01

Horizontal Composite (Color)
1970
Silkscreen

Image size: 12 x 33 3/4 inches (30.5 x 85.7 cm)
Paper size: 18 x 40 inches (45.7 x 101.6 cm)
Edition of 150
Signed lower right and numbered lower left in graphite
(Inventory #32894)

2/2 Two two-part pieces using a cube with opposite sides removed
1968
Enameled steel sculpture

12 1/2 x 18 x 29 1/2 inches  (32 x 46 x 75 cm)
Edition of 35
Signed, numbered, dated and titled on bottom of base
(Inventory #27017)

Cube/Base (Open cube on a 9-part grid)
1967/1968
Baked enamel on steel

Edition of 25
3 7/8 x 10 x 10 inches (9.8 x 25.4 x 25.4 cm)
(Inventory #33071)

Additional Information

Sol LeWitt was born on September 9th, 1928 in Hartford, Connecticut to Eastern European immigrants. His father, a doctor and inventor, died when he was 6. Soon after, he moved with his mother, a nurse, to live with an aunt in New Britain, Connecticut. His mother took him to art classes at the Wadsworth Atheneum in Hartford and he would draw on wrapping paper from his aunt’s grocery store.

LeWitt received a BFA from Syracuse University in 1949 (where he made his first prints) and then was drafted in the Korean War in 1951. During his service, he made posters for the Special Services and spent time in Japan, where he bought the first works that became the basis of a large personal art collection.

In 1953, he moved to New York City, where he studied at the Cartoonists and Illustrators School (now the School of Visual Arts) and worked for Seventeen Magazine, making paste-ups, mechanicals and Photostats. He was then hired as a graphic designer in I.M. Pei’s architecture firm.

In 1960, he took an entry-level job at the Museum of Modern Art, where he met Dan Flavin, Robert Ryman, Lucy Lippard and Robert Mangold. Together, through the Sixteen Americans exhibition, they were introduced to the work of Jasper Johns and Frank Stella and Robert Rauschenberg.

LeWitt was also interested in Russian Constructivism, with its engineering aesthetic and the idea of making utilitarian art in an industrialized age. However, the work that influenced him the most was Eadweard Muybridge’s serial photography, sequential studies of people and animals in motion, which he came across in a book that somebody had left in his apartment. LeWitt’s work from the early 1960s, works on canvas coated with thick gestural oil paint, each featured one of Muybridge’s figures in motion.

LeWitt’s three dimensional structural works from the mid to late 1960s such as Serial Project, Three Part Variations on Three Different Cubes, and hundreds of sculptures made of open white cubes – grew out of this interest in the serial. He applied the same system of permutations and variations in his prints, drawings on paper and drawings on the wall.

Sol LeWitt executed his first wall drawing in 1968 at Paula Cooper Gallery in New York. Like many of the wall drawings after this, Wall Drawing #1 consisted of a system of parallel lines drawn with black pencil on a white wall in four directions (vertical, horizontal, diagonal left, and diagonal right.) By drawing directly on the wall, the work’s duration was limited and ultimately the wall drawings are painted over. It also allowed him to achieve his objective of reinforcing flatness and making a work as two-dimensional as possible. Wall Drawing #1 also emphasized the premise of the artwork over the final product. In a 1969 article for Studio International, LeWitt wrote, Two-dimensional works are not seen as objects. The work is a manifestation of an idea. It is an idea and not an object. Without the traditional support of canvas or paper, wall drawings exist as a set of instructions and can be installed again and again.

This radical shift to drawing on the wall, followed the publication of Paragraphs on Conceptual Art, where he wrote, “When an artist uses a conceptual form of art, it means that all the planning and decisions are made beforehand and the execution is a perfunctory affair. The idea becomes the machine that makes the art.”

Although LeWitt drew Wall Drawing #1 on Paula Cooper’s gallery wall himself, he soon found that a team of assistants could oftentimes install his work better. He believed that the idea of his work superseded the art itself, as curator Andrea Miller-Keller said, “The essence of LeWitt’s work is the original idea as formulated in the artist’s mind.” He soon took this and applied it to the print medium through numerous projects with numerous techniques.

In the late 70s, shortly after his first retrospective the at Museum of Modern Art and after numerous years of exhibiting in Italy, LeWitt moved to Spoleto, Italy. There he saw frescos by Fillippo Lippi, Massaccio, Fra Angelico and Giotto’s in local churches, museums and convents. In 1983, LeWitt’s art underwent a major transformation and he began to experiment with India ink and color ink washes, a nod to the local Trecento and Quattrocento works. He acknowledged the influence of these masterpieces on his own drawings, and went so far to say, that in his work he strived to produce something [he] would not be ashamed to show Giotto.”

In the exhibition catalogue for Think with Senses Feel with Mind, Art in the Present, part of the 2007 Venice Biennale, Robert Storr wrote that LeWitt proved over and over again that the strict, systematic realization of a singular working premise is bound to produce results that will surprise both the maker and the viewer by exceeding expectation and giving eye-and-mind expanding physical dimensions to mental abstractions. Until 2033, LeWitt’s wall drawings are the subject of a solo exhibition titled Sol LeWitt: A Wall Drawing Retrospective at the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art.

Sol LeWitt died in 2007 in New York City.

Lines and Planes and Space

March 7, 2023
- April 22, 2023

Featuring works by Gego, Donald Judd, Sol LeWitt, Brice Marden, Agnes Martin, and Ad Reinhardt

Lines in Four Directions Over 450 Years

January 14, 2023
- April 15, 2023

Art Dealers Association of America (ADAA), The Art Show 2022

November 3, 2022
- November 6, 2022

International Fine Print Dealers Association (IFPDA) Fair Fall 2022 Online Edition

October 27, 2022
- October 30, 2022

Accumulate

September 18, 2021
- November 11, 2021

Featuring works by Mike Bidlo, Sarah Charlesworth, Sol LeWitt, Cindy Sherman, and Haim Steinbach

International Fine Print Dealers Association (IFPDA) Fair Fall 2021 Online Edition

October 15, 2021
- October 31, 2021

International Fine Print Dealers Association (IFPDA) Fair Spring 2021 Online Edition

May 14, 2021
- May 28, 2021

International Fine Print Dealers Association (IFPDA), Fine Art Print Fair (online only) 2020

October 7, 2020
- November 1, 2020

Art Dealers Association of America (ADAA), The Art Show 2020

February 26, 2020
- March 1, 2020

Sol LeWitt: Forms Derived from a Cube in Two and Three Dimensions, and One Wall Work

January 8, 2020
- February 29, 2020

International Fine Print Dealers Association (IFPDA) Fine Art Print Fair, New York 2019

October 23, 2019
- October 27, 2019

One Wall, One Work:
Sol LeWitt

March 30, 2019
- June 15, 2019

Art Dealers Association of America (ADAA), The Art Show 2019

February 27, 2019
- March 3, 2019

Echoing

November 17, 2018
- December 22, 2018

Featuring works by Philip Guston, Sol LeWitt, Julian Opie, and Liliana Porter

International Fine Print Dealers Association (IFPDA) Fine Art Print Fair, New York 2018

October 24, 2018
- October 28, 2018

Overlays

January 6, 2018
- February 10, 2018

Featuring works by Sol LeWitt, Giulio Paolini, and Richard Smith

International Fine Print Dealers Association (IFPDA) Art Fair, New York 2017

October 26, 2017
- October 29, 2017

Darkling

March 18, 2017
- April 22, 2017

Featuring works by Josef Albers, Peter Downsbrough, Sol LeWitt, Robert Mangold, Allan McCollum, and Richard Serra

Art Dealers Association of America (ADAA) Art Show 2017

March 1, 2017
- March 5, 2017

 

 

 

One Wall, One Work:
Sol LeWitt

January 3, 2017
- February 25, 2017

A multi-week project focusing on the Wall Drawings of Sol LeWitt made in the early 1970’s.  Each week, the gallery will install one drawing that will remain on view for the duration of the week.            

Between Subjects

December 10, 2016
- January 21, 2017

Featuring works by Josef Albers, Mel Bochner, Jan Dibbets, Bronlyn Jones, Ellsworth Kelly, Sol LeWitt, Brice Marden, and Sylvia Plimack Mangold

International Fine Print Dealers Association (IFPDA) Art Fair, New York 2016

November 3, 2016
- November 6, 2016

Inner Space

March 19, 2016
- April 23, 2016

Featuring works by Josef Albers, Barbara Broughel, John Cage, Vija Celmins, and Sol LeWitt

Art Dealers Association of America (ADAA) Art Show 2016

March 2, 2016
- March 6, 2016

Equal Dimensions

December 12, 2015
- January 30, 2016

Featuring works by Josef Albers, Richard Artschwager, Robert Barry, Mel Bochner, Peter Downsbrough, Erwin Heerich, Donald Judd, Sol LeWitt, Allan McCollum, Giulio Paolini, Liliana Porter, Stephen Prina, Kay Rosen, Robert Ryman, and Fred Sandback




International Fine Print Dealers Association (IFPDA) Art Fair, New York 2015

November 4, 2015
- November 8, 2015

Segments

September 12, 2015
- October 17, 2015

Featuring works by Sol LeWitt, Giulio Paolini, and Haim Steinbach

Additive Logic

June 13, 2015
- July 24, 2015

Featuring works by Bernd & Hilla Becher, Mel Bochner, Dan Flavin, Sol LeWitt, Kay Rosen, Ed Ruscha, Richard Tuttle, and Franz Erhard Walther

Sol LeWitt:
Structures and Related Works on Paper, 1968 – 2005

January 31, 2015
- March 14, 2015

Art Dealers Association of America (ADAA) Art Show 2015

March 3, 2015
- March 8, 2015

 

 

International Fine Print Dealers Association (IFPDA) Art Fair, New York 2014

November 5, 2014
- November 9, 2014

Apparent Forms

June 21, 2014
- July 25, 2014

Featuring works by Josef Albers, John Baldessari, Barbara Broughel, Tara Donovan, Barbara Kruger, Sol LeWitt, Brice Marden, Allan McCollum, Liliana Porter, Kate Shepherd, Kiki Smith, Lawrence Weiner, and Ray Charles White

Art Dealers Association of America (ADAA) Art Show 2014

March 5, 2014
- March 9, 2014

International Fine Print Dealers Association (IFPDA) Art Fair, New York 2013

November 6, 2013
- November 10, 2013

Art Dealers Association of America (ADAA) Art Show 2013

March 5, 2013
- March 10, 2013

International Fine Print Dealers Association (IFPDA) Art Fair, New York 2012

October 31, 2012
- November 4, 2012

Arise

June 23, 2012
- July 28, 2012

Featuring works by Michael Beatty, Barbara Broughel, Amy Stacey Curtis, Annette Lemieux, Sol LeWitt, Josiah McElheny, and Bill Thompson

Art Dealers Association of America (ADAA) Art Show 2012

March 7, 2012
- March 11, 2012

 PAR  PAR
S      E     T

January 28, 2012
- March 10, 2012

Featuring works by Josef Albers, Robert Barry, Bernd & Hilla Becher, Tara Donovan, Frank Egloff, Dan Flavin, On Kawara, Sol LeWitt, Allan McCollum, Michelangelo Pistoletto, Kay Rosen, Ed Ruscha, and Fred Sandback

International Fine Print Dealers Association (IFPDA) Art Fair, New York 2011

November 4, 2011
- November 7, 2011

Featuring works by: Sophie Calle, Peter Downsbrough, Joseph Grigely, Glenn Ligon, Sol LeWitt, Michelangelo Pistoletto, Liliana Porter, Kay Rosen, Lorna Simpson, and Kiki Smith

Surface Area

September 10, 2011
- October 15, 2011

Featuring works by Peter Downsbrough, Ellsworth Kelly, Sol LeWitt, Kay Rosen, Robert Ryman, and James Turrell

Morphologies

March 19, 2011
- April 26, 2011

Featuring works by Tara Donovan, Charles LeDray, Brice Marden, Julian Opie, Bill Thompson, and Ursula von Rydingsvard

Art Dealers Association of America (ADAA) Art Show 2011

March 2, 2011
- March 6, 2011

International Fine Print Dealers Association (IFPDA)
Art Show 2010

November 4, 2010
- November 7, 2010

Lines, Shapes and Shadows

March 20, 2010
- May 1, 2010

Featuring works by Robert Ryman, Fred Sandback, Richard Tuttle, and Sol LeWitt

IN ON UNDER ABOVE AND WITH

January 23, 2010
- March 13, 2010

Featuring works by Christiane Baumgartner, Bernd & Hilla Becher, Frank Egloff, Sol LeWitt, Allan McCollum, and Suara Welitoff

Art Dealers Association of America (ADAA) Art Show 2010

March 3, 2010
- March 7, 2010

International Fine Print Dealers Association (IFPDA) Art Show 2009

November 5, 2009
- November 8, 2009

Sol LeWitt: Locations

September 19, 2009
- November 10, 2009

Missing

January 17, 2009
- March 4, 2009

Featuring works by Barbara Broughel, Carrol Dunham, Joseph Grigely, Yayoi Kusama, Sol LeWitt, Allan McCollum, Michelangelo Pistoletto, Robin Rhode, Fred Sandback, Jonathan Seliger, and Sarah Sze