It’s Day Thirty-Five and today was a nice painting day.  Today’s artist was known for a number of different types of art and very colorful art.  I chose to do one of his more monochrome pieces because it stood out to me and I fell in love!  Let’s all celebrate Sol LeWitt!

Solomon “Sol” LeWitt (September 9, 1928 – April 8, 2007) was an American artist linked to various movements, including

Conceptual art and Minimalism.

LeWitt came to fame in the late 1960s with his wall drawings and “structures” (a term he preferred instead of “sculptures”) but was prolific in a wide range of media including drawing, printmaking, photography, and painting. He has been the subject of hundreds of solo exhibitions in museums and galleries around the world since 1965.

LeWitt was born in Hartford, Connecticut to a family of Jewish immigrants from

Russia. His mother took him to art classes at the Wadsworth Atheneumin Hartford.  After receiving a BFA from Syracuse University in 1949, LeWitt traveled to Europe where he was exposed to Old Master painting. Shortly thereafter, he served in the Korean War, first in California, then Japan, and finally Korea. LeWitt moved to New York City in 1953 and set up a studio on the Lower East Side, in the old Ashkenazi Jewish settlement on Hester Street. During this time he studied at the School of Visual Arts while also pursuing his interest in design at Seventeen magazine, where he did paste-ups, mechanicals, and photostats.  In 1955, he was a graphic designer in the office of architect I.M. Pei for a year. Around that time, LeWitt also discovered the work of the late 19th-century photographer Eadweard Muybridge, whose studies in sequence and locomotion were an early influence. These experiences, combined with an entry-level job as a night receptionist and clerk he took in 1960 at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York, would influence LeWitt’s later work.

At the MoMA, LeWitt’s co-workers included fellow artists Robert Ryman, Dan Flavin, and Robert Mangold, and the future art critic and writer, Lucy Lippard who worked as a page in the library. Curator Dorothy Canning Miller’s now famous 1960 “Sixteen Americans” exhibition with work by Jasper Johns, Robert Rauschenberg, and Frank Stella created a swell of excitement and discussion among the community of artists with whom LeWitt associated. LeWitt also became friends with Hanne Darboven, Eva Hesse, and Robert Smithson.

LeWitt taught at several New York schools, including New York University and

the School of Visual Arts, during the late 1960s. In 1980, LeWitt left New York for Spoleto, Italy. After returning to the United States in the late 1980s, LeWitt made Chester, Connecticut, his primary residence.  He died at age 78 in New York from cancer complications.

LeWitt is regarded as a founder of both Minimal and Conceptual art. His prolific two and three-dimensional work ranges from wall drawings (over 1200 of which have been executed) to hundreds of works on paper extending to structures in the form of towers, pyramids, geometric forms, and progressions. These works range in size from gallery-sized installations to monumental outdoor pieces. LeWitt’s first serial sculptures were created in the 1960s using the modular form of the square in arrangements of varying visual complexity.

Read more of his extensive biography at wikipedia.

 

As I wrote earlier, I decided to do a black & white painting.  I love color, but I was so drawn to his monochrome ones.  I even decided to do one of his more free form designs as opposed to straight lines and angles…which I tend to be horrible at apparently!  It was still difficult and I cannot imagine painting an entire wall in this way.  He achieved a great feat in just that respect!

So, here’s my tribute to Sol LeWitt!  There aren’t many pictures of my progress because this was yet another example of a painting in which I fell into a sort of trance while I was creating it.  I also realized I am starting to create little techniques to make painting easier.  I’m noticing little difficulties along the way and am remedying them somehow.  As I progress through this insane project, I feel more and more that I’ve enrolled myself into some crazy independent master’s painting project.  I love it.  Thanks so much for the support!  Only 330 days to go!  Haha.  xoxo, Linda