Sol LeWitt

SOL LEWITT (Connecticut, 1928 - New York, 2007).
"Not straight lines", 2003.
Set of 6 etchings, issue 19/20.
Hand signed and numbered by the artist.
Measurements: 25 x 25 cm (u.c.); 41 x 41 cm (frames).

In the "Not Straight Lines" series, LeWitt develops parallel irregular lines that play with the ambiguity between improvisation and meticulous study of patterns. Using minimalist techniques, LeWitt creates compositions that may appear simple at first glance, but reveal a complexity in the interplay of forms and spaces. LeWitt dedicated his entire oeuvre to delving conceptually and graphically into the exploration of patterns and systems through geometry and repetition. The broken lines convey a sense of fluidity and energy that we visually associate with the pulse of the hand and the emotions involved in creation. These lines thus become a kind of seismograph, a device metaphorically associated with creative intuition.

An artist linked to several movements, among them conceptual art and minimal, Sol LeWitt expressed himself mainly through painting, drawing, photography and structures. Born into a Jewish family of Russian immigrants, after receiving a BFA from Syracuse University in 1949 he began a series of trips around Europe, where he was influenced by the great masters of painting. Settling in New York in the fifties, he focused his interest on graphic design, working for Seventeen Magazine. During the following decade the artist worked at the MoMA in New York, another experience that would mark the development of his work. During these years, LeWitt became one of the main representatives of conceptual art, which emphasizes that the idea, and not its physical form, is fundamental. He was one of the pioneers of this movement, as well as one of its most prominent theoreticians, and his work has also been related to minimalism. From 1965 LeWitt will be the subject of hundreds of solo exhibitions in museums and galleries around the world. His works include two- and three-dimensional works, from wall paintings (more than 1,200) to photographs, drawings and sculptures of all kinds, including towers, pyramids, geometric forms and progressions. Sol LeWitt frequently used open, modular structures based on the cube, a key form in the development of his language. In 1978, the Museum of Modern Art in New York dedicated his first retrospective exhibition to him. LeWitt is currently represented in that museum, as well as in the Guggenheim in New York and Bilbao, the Kunstmuseum in Basel, the Palazzo Forti in Verona, the SMAK in Ghent, the Tate Gallery in London, the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden and the National Gallery in Washington, the Metropolitan in New York and the National Gallery of Australia, among many others.