Sol LeWitt

The work of Sol LeWitt (Hartford, Connecticut, 1928) is situated between the currents of minimalism and conceptual art, movements that originated in New York in the 60s.
The geometric figure is the basic element in LeWitts compositions. His works are composed of structures that present different compartments. He uses the square and the cube, and from there arise infinite series of variations and combinations. Sol LeWitt adopts the technique of serialisation, inspired by photographic experiments of Eadweard Muybridge done in 1870. The use of pure geometric forms produces in the spectator a sensation of order and of mathematical calculation.
LeWitt perceives geometry as a true form of an eternal order. He uses primary colours of great intensity. Shapes and colours grant movement and rhythm to his compositions. Sometimes LeWitts serial compositions have been compared to the dodecaphonic serial music of Schoenberg. His work is of a great simplicity, clarity and purity, basic characteristics of minimalism.
For the artist the work requires no explanation, since the people that contemplate it can only see a geometric figure, which represents itself. According to the theorist Luc Lang: 'It is not a representation, but a presentation, or even better, the insignificant, although concrete, presence of a volume which occupies a space'.
Sol LeWitt gives more importance to the idea than to the execution of the artwork. The artist explains that when an artist turns to a conceptual art form, the project in its totality and all the decisions regarding it are made before the production of the work, whose realisation is reduced to mere mechanical production. The idea becomes, as he says in Sentences on Conceptual Art, a machine that generates art.