| Sol LeWitt (1928-2007) remains one of the most influential artists of the 20th and 21st centuries for his mechanical and minimalist innovations in printmaking, drawing and sculpture. In the catalog for his 1978 retrospective at New York's Museum of Modern Art, curator Bernice Rose said that "his innovative work drawing directly on walls was as important for drawing as Pollock's use of the drip technique had been for painting in the 1950s." As one of the originators of Conceptual Art, Sol LeWitt believes in the primacy of the idea or concept in an artwork over and above its execution or aesthetic sensibility, even though the visual effect of Lewitts work is always arresting. | | In his sculptures, paintings, wall drawings, and prints, LeWitt explored repetitions and variations of deceptively simple elements of line or shape in order to achieve complex relationships and patterns. Lewitts work has been exhibited worldwide, including shows at the Gemeentemuseum, The Hague, Holland; the Kunsthalle, Berne, Switzerland; the Rijksmuseum Kroller-Muller, the Netherlands; and the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago. In addition to his 1978 major retrospective, the Museum of Modern Art, New York gave him a print retrospective in 1995. |
