Yesterday, thanks to our friends at the Public Art Fund, the first outdoor career survey of Sol LeWitt, a radical, innovative artist, and leader in the movements of Minimalism and Conceptualism, opened at New York’s City Hall Park. Unfamiliar with his name? As The New York Times wrote back when he died in 2007, “A patron and friend of colleagues young and old, he was the opposite of the artist as celebrity. He tried to suppress all interest in him as opposed to his work; he turned down awards and was camera-shy and reluctant to grant interviews. He particularly disliked the prospect of having his photograph in the newspaper.” Click through for photos of a few of the 27 three-dimensional works currently on display, but keep in mind this quote from LeWitt, which sums up much of his output: “Most ideas that are successful are ludicrously simple.”
Sol LeWitt, Complex Form 6, 1987. Painted aluminum. 8′ x 12’8″ x 4′. Courtesy of Fred Dorfman and Dennis Rosenthal. Photo: Jason Wyche, Courtesy Public Art Fund © 2011 The LeWitt Estate / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
Sol LeWitt, One x Two Half Off, 1991. Painted aluminum. 10′ x 10′ x 7’8″. Private Collection, New York. Photo: Jason Wyche, Courtesy Public Art Fund © 2011 The LeWitt Estate / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
Sol LeWitt, Splotch 15, 2005. Acrylic on fiberglass. 12′ x 8’4″ x 6’8″. LeWitt Collection, Chester, CT. Photo: Jason Wyche, Courtesy Public Art Fund © 2011 The LeWitt Estate / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
Sol LeWitt, Pyramid (Münster), 1987. Concrete block. 13’4″ x 13’8″ x 13’8″. Fisher Family Photo: Jason Wyche, Courtesy Public Art Fund © 2011 The LeWitt Estate / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
Sol LeWitt, Incomplete Open Cubes, 1974. Photo: Jason Wyche, Courtesy Public Art Fund © 2011 The LeWitt Estate / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York