1996
While New York City’s art scene in the 1950s and ’60s revolved around Abstract Expressionism, multidisciplinary artist Sol LeWitt paved an alternative path, creating a prolific output of work in the genres of minimalism and, later, Conceptual art.
While LeWitt is perhaps best known for his immense “wall drawings,” he created work in a wide range of media, including drawing, painting, printmaking and sculpture. (However, in a characteristic rebuttal of canonical art history, he referred to these pieces as “structures.”) He also produced several texts, including the seminal Sentences on Conceptual Art (1969).
Born in Hartford, Connecticut, in 1928, LeWitt received a BFA from Syracuse University before going to work as a graphic designer for the renowned architect I.M. Pei. He would later work at the book counter at the Museum of Modern Art, where his colleagues included fellow artists. LeWitt’s early exposure to architecture may well have had outsize influence on his subsequent career: He was known for the geometric nature of his work, specifically his fastidious, near-obsessive treatment of the cube, which he rendered repeatedly in various ways throughout his paintings, structures and wall drawings.
In the 1960s, LeWitt showed in several group exhibitions throughout New York and also began to experiment with three-dimensional structures, most modular riffs on the cube shape. His work was included in “Working Drawings and Other Visible Things on Paper Not Necessarily Meant to Be Viewed as Art,” curated by Mel Bochner, another leading exponent of Conceptualism.
Later, LeWitt debuted his now-iconic wall drawings, creating work directly on the walls of galleries and show spaces, beginning with pioneering gallerist Paula Cooper’s inaugural show in 1968. The wall drawings became a prime example of LeWitt’s philosophical approach to art, with their installation often carried out by museum staff or curators following precise instructions from the artist.
“The idea,” the artist once said, “becomes a machine that makes the art.” LeWitt continued to produce work until his death in 2007.
Find a collection of original Sol LeWitt art on 1stDibs.
Untitled, from the Kinderstern Portfolio
By Sol LeWitt
Located in Milford, NH
A fine black and white silkscreen geometric print from the Kinderstern Portfolio by American artist Sol LeWitt (1928-2007). LeWitt was was born in Hartford, Connecticut, and attended...
Paper, Screen
A Pyramid
By Sol LeWitt
Located in Toronto, Ontario
Sol LeWitt (1928-2007) is an important contributor to the 20th century's most cerebral "isms" notably minimalism and conceptual art. Many of his works were created from elaborate a...
Screen
$3,850
H 9.75 in W 7.75 in D 1.5 in
Sol Lewitt - original drawing - geometric abstraction (signed twice), Framed
By Sol LeWitt
Located in New York, NY
Sol Lewitt - original drawing - geometric abstraction (signed twice), 1980 Marker drawing on postmarked (franked) postcard - signed and inscribed twice original drawing black felt ti...
Postcard, Permanent Marker
Tondo Stars
By Sol LeWitt
Located in London, GB
Signed and numbered 6 colours each Paper: Somerset Satin, White, 300 grams Printers: Eisaku Sakane, assisted by Keigo Takahashhi & Chie Shimizu, Watanbe Studio, New York Completed 8th November 2002 Published by Bernard Jacobson Ltd., London, and Parasol Press...
Linocut
$250
H 12.75 in W 18.5 in D 0.75 in
Sol Lewitt Continuous Forms and Color Offset Print, Framed, 1989
By Sol LeWitt
Located in Brooklyn, NY
This original exhibition invitation presents Continuous Form and Color by Sol LeWitt, one of the most influential figures in Minimalism and Conceptual art. The composition—rendered h...
Offset
silkscreen
By Sol LeWitt
Located in Henderson, NV
Medium: silkscreen. Printed in 1984 for "Ficciones" and published by The Limited Editions Club in an edition of 1500. Size: 8 x 7 3/4 inches (203 x 198 mm). Not signed. Condition: t...
Screen
silkscreen
By Sol LeWitt
Located in Henderson, NV
Medium: silkscreen. Printed in 1984 for "Ficciones" and published by The Limited Editions Club in an edition of 1500. Size: 8 x 7 3/4 inches (203 x 198 mm). Not signed. Condition: t...
Screen
silkscreen
By Sol LeWitt
Located in Henderson, NV
Medium: silkscreen. Printed in 1984 for "Ficciones" and published by The Limited Editions Club in an edition of 1500. Size: 8 x 7 3/4 inches (203 x 198 mm). Not signed. Condition: t...
Screen
silkscreen
By Sol LeWitt
Located in Henderson, NV
Medium: silkscreen. Printed in 1984 for "Ficciones" and published by The Limited Editions Club in an edition of 1500. Size: 8 x 7 3/4 inches (203 x 198 mm). Not signed. Condition: t...
Screen
silkscreen
By Sol LeWitt
Located in Henderson, NV
Medium: silkscreen. Printed in 1984 for "Ficciones" and published by The Limited Editions Club in an edition of 1500. Size: 8 x 7 3/4 inches (203 x 198 mm). Not signed. Condition: t...
Screen
Two Open Squares Within a Red Area
By Robert Mangold
Located in New York, NY
Associated with the Minimalist art movement of the 1960s, Mangold developed a reductive vocabulary based on geometric forms, monochromatic color, and an emphasis on the flatness of t...
Paper, Etching, Aquatint
Untitled I, II, III
By Robert Mangold
Located in New York, NY
numbered and signed lower margin S&S Cat. no. 2007.01 edition 6/30 Published by Simmelink/Sukimoto Editions, Kingston, New York Associated with the Minimalist art movement of the 1...
Etching, Aquatint
Frame with Separation
By Robert Mangold
Located in New York, NY
Associated with the Minimalist art movement of the 1960s, Mangold developed a reductive vocabulary based on geometric forms, monochromatic color, and an emphasis on the flatness of t...
Woodcut
Extended Frame with Separation
By Robert Mangold
Located in New York, NY
Associated with the Minimalist art movement of the 1960s, Mangold developed a reductive vocabulary based on geometric forms, monochromatic color, and an emphasis on the flatness of t...
Woodcut
Untitled
By Robert Mangold
Located in New York, NY
Associated with the Minimalist art movement of the 1960s, Mangold developed a reductive vocabulary based on geometric forms, monochromatic color, and an emphasis on the flatness of t...
Woodcut
Untitled I
By Thomas Nozkowski
Located in New York, NY
For over thirty years, Nozkowski has practiced his own form of idiosyncratic abstraction, foregoing a signature style or subject matter in favor of seemingly limitless variations in ...
Color, Linocut, Woodcut
