Sol LeWitt by Nicole Bunzel

SPATIAL PERFORMANCE

ARTIST: Sol LeWitt

TITLE: Successive Rows of Horizontal Straight Lines from Top to Bottom, and Vertical, Straight Lines from Left to Right

YEAR: 1972

• RESEARCH
  • American Conceptual Artist and Painter
  • Instrumental in the transition from the modern to the postmodern era
  • LeWitt believed the idea itself could be the work of art
  • Vocabulary of visual art consisted of lines, basic colors and simplified shapes
  • Hinted at mathematical equations and architectural specifications
  • Used traditional materials – wood, canvas, paint, for instance – but focusing instead on concepts and systems
  • Born in Hartford, Connecticut and attended Syracuse University
  • 1951, drafted for the Korean War, his duties included making posters.
  • Moved to New York and balanced classes at the School of Visual Arts with a design internship at Seventeen magazine
  • 1955, he joined the architectural office of I. M. Pei as a graphic designer

• READING
  • Rooms should be dynamic – experiential corridor
  • Transitions, and the hierarchy of places, draw out the passage from the public realm to the private, also can be a buffer
  • Transitions lead to the destination (hearth)
  • Hearth – the center of the space
  • Seeing vs being seen

• SENSORY QUALITY
  • Light
  • Rhythm
  • Shadow

• CONDITIONS
  • Symmetrical
  • Weaving
  • Linear
  • Axial
  • Monochrome