Sol LeWitt
dal 23/5/2011 al 1/12/2011
Segnalato da
23/5/2011
Sol LeWitt
City Hall Park, New York
The landmark exhibition will include 27 works from this seminal artist's modular, serial, geometric, and irregular structures series that attest to his lifelong engagement with the medium and present his most important ideas about sculpture. Just a few years after his death in 2007, Sol LeWitt remains one of our most significant and radical artists. He first found his artistic voice in his structures of the mid 1960s, giving rise to a career that would change the way we think about art. Spanning more than 40 years, this exhibition traces that evolution, revealing his remarkable and sustained artistic development.
Public Art Fund is pleased to announce Sol LeWitt:
Structures, 1965-2006, the first outdoor career survey of Sol LeWitt’s sculptures—or
―structures‖ as he called his three-dimensional works. On view May 24 – December 2, 2011, the
landmark exhibition will include 27 works from this seminal artist’s modular, serial, geometric,
and irregular structures series that attest to his lifelong engagement with the medium and
present his most important ideas about sculpture.
Just a few years after his death in 2007, Sol LeWitt remains one of our most significant and
radical artists. He first found his artistic voice in his structures of the mid 1960s, giving rise to a
career that would change the way we think about art. Spanning more than 40 years, this
exhibition traces that evolution, revealing his remarkable and sustained artistic development.
―Public Art Fund has brought another impressive and thought-provoking installation to City Hall
Park,‖ said Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg. ―Sol LeWitt spent much of his career in New York
City and for years had a studio on the Lower East Side. He drew his inspiration from our City,
and I know New Yorkers and visitors who take in this first-of-its-kind collection of structures will
be just as inspired by his work.
Organized by Public Art Fund Director and Chief Curator Nicholas Baume, the exhibition
features numerous large-scale pieces that audiences have never before been able to view
together, including several major works installed publicly in the United States for the first time.
With works on loan from museums; private collections and galleries in the United States,
Europe, and Australia; and from the Estate of the artist, Sol LeWitt: Structures provides an
opportunity for those already aware of his sculpture to see a unique overview of his
achievement. It also introduces a broad public to the artist’s influential work and ideas in depth.
―City Hall Park and its environs in Lower Manhattan offer a perfect location to reconsider
LeWitt’s structures,‖ said Baume. ―His geometric, white forms contrast with the organic,
picturesque park setting, while they also resonate strongly with the surrounding Manhattan grid
and the stepped profiles of its signature skyscrapers. The later work, with its complex and
irregular forms, anticipates the vocabulary of more recent architecture, including Frank Gehry’s
undulating new tower at 8 Spruce Street.
For more than 30 years, Public Art Fund has presented works in City Hall Park, with the majority
installed at the southern end. Sol LeWitt: Structures will extend an exhibition north to the lawns on
the west side of City Hall and the Tweed Courthouse and to the plaza east of the Courthouse and
across the street from the Manhattan Municipal Building. Two works will also be installed inside
City Hall and will be accessible by tour.
The exhibition includes a selection of large modular structures from the 1960s to the 1990s.
Derived from the basic module of an open-faced cube, these works suggest endless variations
based upon a single, repeated element. Radical in conception when they were first created in
the 1960s, these works represented a new methodology for how art could be made. Among the
examples to be included in the exhibition are Modular Cube (1965), an early work in painted
wood to be installed in the lobby of City Hall (accessible by tour). Increasingly large outdoor
works include Large Modular Cube (1969), Double Modular Cube (1969), Three x Four x Three
(1984), and One x Two Half Off (1991).
Another body of work demonstrates an idea crucial to LeWitt’s artistic development: seriality. The
exhibition features a rare, 22-foot long example from the 1967 serial project, Three-Part Variations
on Three Different Kinds of Cubes. Also included are nine works from the artist’s 122-part series,
Incomplete Open Cubes, illustrating the full progression from three-part to 11-part open cubes
and presenting a mini-survey of this body of work for the first time.
Following his exploration of cubic forms, LeWitt began working with concrete blocks to produce
a range of geometric forms. Public Art Fund will reconstruct and present two of the most
significant of these monumentally-scaled works, to be shown in New York for the first time.
Tower (Columbus) (1990) will rise to more than 25 feet in height in view of the entrance to
the Brooklyn Bridge.
After producing these diverse bodies of work based upon geometric forms, LeWitt began to
explore irregular forms. Public Art Fund’s exhibition includes important examples of LeWitt’s
angular Complex Forms from the 1980s and 90s, as well as five structures from his Star series.
Bringing LeWitt’s sculptural evolution to a surprising climax, from minimalist monochrome grid to
vibrant, organic form is one of his large polychrome Splotch structures from 2005.
WORKING WITH SOL
The final talk of Public Art Fund’s spring series, New York Stories takes place Wednesday, May
4 at 6:30pm in The New School’s John Tishman Auditorium. This conversation among some of
the people who worked most closely with the artist throughout his career, features gallerist
Paula Cooper, artist Pat Steir, and Principal Assistant, Structures, Jeremy Ziemann, and is
moderated by Nicholas Baume. To purchase tickets, visit www.publicartfund.org.
ABOUT THE ARTIST
A leader in the movements of Minimalism and Conceptualism, Sol LeWitt’s work ranges from
photography to works on paper to wall drawings, and includes 3-dimensional structures that
explore different geometric forms such as pyramids and cubes. His work has been shown in
hundreds of museums and galleries around the world, including his first retrospective, which
was presented in 1978-79 by the Museum of Modern Art in New York, and current long-term
exhibitions at MASS MoCA (Sol LeWitt: A Wall Drawing Retrospective) and Dia:Beacon (Sol
LeWitt: Drawing Series...). His works are included in the collections of the Tate Modern,
London; the Stedelijk van Abbemuseum, Amsterdam; Musée National d'Art Moderne, Centre
Georges Pompidou, Paris; Australian National Gallery, Canberra, Australia; Solomon R.
Guggenheim Museum, New York; Museum of Modern Art, New York; Dia:Beacon, New York;
the National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC; and the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden,
Washington, DC. LeWitt died in New York City in 2007, at the age of 78.
SUPPORT
Made possible by Forest City Ratner Companies, Agnes Gund, Jonathan Sobel and Marcia
Dunn Foundation, The Pace Gallery, Tishman Construction Corporation, David Wine & Michael
P. MacElhenny, and anonymous donors.
Major support provided by Elise & Andrew Brownstein, Mickey Cartin, Virginia Dwan, Gladstone
Gallery, James Cohan Gallery, Naomi Milgrom Kaldor & John Kaldor, Kraus Family Foundation,
Jo Carole & Ronald S. Lauder, Ellen & George Needham, Paula Cooper Gallery, Linda &
Andrew Safran, and an anonymous donor.
Additional funding provided by James Keith Brown & Eric Diefenbach, Gabriella De Ferrari, Fifth
Floor Foundation, Steven Henry & Philip Shneidman, The Joelson Foundation, and David
Teiger.
Public Art Fund gratefully acknowledges the partnership of Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg; First
Deputy Mayor Patricia E. Harris; Parks and Recreation Commissioner Adrian Benepe; and
Cultural Affairs Commissioner Kate D. Levin.
Special thanks to The LeWitt Estate.
Public Art Fund is a non-profit art organization supported by generous contributions from
individuals, foundations, and corporations, and with funds from the New York City Department
of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council.
ABOUT PUBLIC ART FUND
Public Art Fund is New York’s leading presenter of artists’ projects, new commissions,
installations, and exhibitions in public spaces. Since 1977, the Public Art Fund has worked with
over 500 emerging and established artists to produce innovative temporary exhibitions of
contemporary art throughout New York City. By bringing artworks outside the traditional context
of museums and galleries, the Public Art Fund provides a unique platform for an unparalleled
encounter with the art of our time.
For more information about Public Art Fund, please visit www.publicartfund.org.
Image: Sol LeWitt, Pyramid (Münster) (1987). Concrete Block.
13’4‖ x 13’8‖ x 13’8‖. Courtesy Fisher Family
On view May 24, 2011
City Hall Park, New York