SOL LEWITT

(AMERICAN, 1928–2007)

Intricate Wall, 2001–04
concrete block
216 x 360 x 128 inches
Loan courtesy of the LeWitt Estate

Sol LeWitt’s Intricate Wall, 2001–04, confronts and confounds viewers, highlighting the similarities and differences that exist between sculpture and architecture. During his artistic career, LeWitt’s work investigated the many ways in which shapes can be organized within a set of self-imposed restrictions. Here, cinder blocks, stacked and mortared in a precise repetitive modular pattern within an assigned cubic grid, look like prison walls, crash barriers and a maze. These ambiguous resemblances are exploited by LeWitt to suggest that sculpture is literal as well as optical. Through the 1980’s and 90’s, LeWitt used concrete and cinder blocks to present his system of organization, but he slowly moved away from the cold rigidity of concrete into creating works made of colorful organic forms. In that sense, Intricate Wall, completed in 2004, is one of the latest examples of these works.

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ARTIST BIOGRAPHY

Sol LeWitt was born in 1928 in Hartford, Connecticut. He earned his B.F.A. from Syracuse University in 1949. LeWitt is considered a founder of both the Minimalist and the Conceptual art movements. He was known for his sculptures, or what he called “structures,” which implied a connection with architecture. LeWitt's work has been exhibited extensively across the world in places including Australia, Austria, Belgium, England, France, Germany, Holland, Italy, Japan, Spain, Switzerland and The Netherlands, in addition to numerous exhibitions in the United States, including a solo exhibition at Laumeier in 2004. His work is represented at a wide range of prestigious institutions, including the Museum of Modern Art and the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; the Tate Gallery and the Saatchi Collection, London; the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam; the Musée National d'Art Moderne, Paris; the Panza Collection, Varese, Italy; the Australian National Gallery, Canberra; the Musée d'Art Contemporain de Bordeaux, France; and the Museum Moderner Kunst, Vienna.