‘An architect doesn't go off with a shovel and dig his foundation and lay every brick. He's still an artist.’ – Sol LeWitt
Pioneer of minimal and conceptual art, Sol LeWitt’s abstract and architectural oeuvre is governed by the artist’s lifelong commitment to a fundamentally geometric vocabulary. Using formulas, patterns, ratio, geometric solids and lines to create his structures and wall drawings, the artist, inspired by his time working in an architect’s office, roots his works within their surroundings. From wall drawings to his three-dimensional structures such as the present work, the artist allows environment to assume a critical role in the perception of his work. Previously housed in the collection of Fernand Spillemaeckers, founder of European MTL Gallery, Brussels, the pioneering space for minimal and conceptual art, and loaned to Museum van Hedendaagse Kunst Citadelpark, Ghent, the present work is a considered and early example from LeWitt’s architectural oeuvre.
The present work, a pillar composed of regulated cubic metal straits, holds a discernable rhythmic quality; symmetry lies at the heart of the structure through the repetitive grid like motif. Throughout his prolific career, LeWitt’s artistic output evolved through varied mediums, the cube however appears at every juncture, from sculpture to photography.
Whilst the artist’s wall drawings have garnered him widespread recognition, it is his sculptural works that form the origins of his practice. The artist’s first solo exhibition, held at Daniels Gallery in New York in 1965, comprised five sculptures, rectangular black wooden forms such as Floor Structure and Wall Structure, all of which can be considered geometric predecessors to the present work, underlining the artist’s lifelong commitment to geometry and architecture.
Formulating the principles of the budding conceptual art movement in the 1960s, LeWitt’s essay ‘Paragraphs on Conceptual Art’ asserted that the concepts and notions behind a work of art surpass its physical execution. Likening his role as an artist to the systematic practice of that of an architect or composer, LeWitt often composed instructions or drafts of works that others could realise. The present work, in its systematic and sensitive regard for architectural framework, is a testament to the freedom that LeWitt found within self-imposed limitations of his practice.