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Artist or Maker: Sol LeWitt (b.1928)
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Provenance: Galerie Bruno Bischofberger, Zürich
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Exhibited: Zürich, Galerie Bruno Bischofberger, 1967
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Notes: A rigorous minimalist with a generous nature, Sol Lewitt's artistic practice has concerned itself with the basic building blocks of form since the early 1960s. His major New York debut was in the famous "Primary Structures" exhibition at the Jewish Museum in 1966, where he exhibited a modular structure. Lewitt's structures (characteristically, he dislikes their being called "sculptures") reference the basic elements of architecture. His forms are the foundation for all potential structures, and their variations of pure geometry recall the explorations of the International Style architects. Lewitt's work forces the viewer to suspend their preconceived notions about the distinctions between the artistic disciplines. Architecture, sculpture, drawing and painting--each of these terms, when applied to Lewitt's works, fragments his overall conceptual thinking.
In Untitled, the open white rectangle recalls a modern architectural tower, but made at a scale that feels ergonomic and concerned with a human sense of scale. Intended as an outdoor work, the stark geometric form is a strong juxtaposition against the natural landscape in a triumph of the conceptual and intellectual over the emotional and the gestural. Lewitt's search for the most universal method of creating art resulted in forms that are at once startlingly simple and at the same time, visually astounding.
