Sol LeWitt (Hartford 1928) Iconic American artist whose work helped establish both minimalism and conceptual art. LeWitt’s practice was based primarily on his own intellect where he explored countless variations of the application of lines drawn on walls.
“When an artist uses a conceptual art form, it means that all the planning and decisions are made in advance and the execution is a perfunctory affair. The idea becomes a machine that creates the art,” he wrote in his 1967 essay on conceptual art.
Born Solomon LeWitt on September 9, 1928 in Hartford, CT, he received his BFA from Syracuse University before serving in the United States Army during the Korean War. After the war, he moved to New York, where he attended illustration classes and worked as a graphic designer for several magazines. During the 1950s, while experimenting with painting during the day and working nights at The Museum of Modern Art he met the artists Robert Ryman, Dan Flavin, and Robert Mangold. By the early 1960s, influenced by a combination of Robert Rauschenberg, Josef Albers and Eadweard Muybridge, LeWitt had developed his unique hands-on approach to creating art.
The artist would go on to co-found, in 1976, the non-profit art bookstore Printed Matter, Inc. with writer Lucy Lippard. Over the course of his career he would have a profound influence on both his peers and younger artists including Frank Stella and Eva Hesse. LeWitt died on April 8, 2007 in New York. Today, his works are held in the collections of the Art Institute of Chicago, the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., the Tate Gallery in London, the Dia Art Foundation in Beacon, NY, and the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis.