Sol LeWitt’s wall drawings start off as instructions written in natural language that are then executed at the specific exhibition site. The fact that the execution of the instruction is left to someone other than the artist places emphasis on the concept and planning of the art work rather than its final form.
LeWitt’s wall drawings, over 1,200 of which have been executed, are one instance of his use of open, modular ‘structures’—a term that can be understood in both a conceptual and sculptural sense.
Wall Drawing #305 was first drawn by LeWitt himself and Jo Watanabe (then his walldrawing assistant, and a specialist in screenprinting, who has since become Lewitt’s principal printer), in the Art & Architecture building, Yale University, in 1977. The instructions are as follows: The location of one hundred random specific points. (The locations are determined by the drafters)
As long as they follow the instructions those executing such as work have free reign to draw what and how they choose (though they have to be trained by LeWitt himself). In this case they draw 100 points using black crayon - located according to a system they themselves determine - accompanied in each case by a description, also determined by the person drawing, in black pencil.
Sol LeWitt is a pioneering artist of both Minimalism and Conceptualism. Born in Connecticut, he studied art at Syracuse University, and, after travels to Europe and military service in Korea and elsewhere, he moved to New York City in the 1950s. There he continued his studies at the School of Visual Arts, and also worked as a graphic designer, including a stint in the office of architect I. M. Pei.
His experience of an architect’s practice along with exposure to the flourishing art scene in New York in this period led to his interest in formal, modular and systematic strategies of art production, often involving the cube as a form, whether represented through drawing, printmaking, or what LeWitt calls ‘structures’, a term he prefers to ‘sculpture’.
One of LeWitt’s most famous means of make art is in the form of sets of instructions that can be executed by others. He has been quoted as saying that ‘the idea becomes a machine that makes the art’, a statement that connects him not just to Conceptualism, but also to work made using algorithmic procedures on computers, though LeWitt’s own work has never involved such means. LeWitt is recognised as one of the most important artists of his generation and he has shown all over the world since his first retrospective at the Museum of Modern Art in New York in 1978 – 9.
