Sol LeWitt

Born Hartford, CT, 1928.  Died New York City, NY, 2007

Incomplete Open Cube 8/2, 1974
Painted aluminum
42 x 42 x 42 inches
Collection Miami Art Museum, fractional and promised gift of Gloria and Leonard Luria

Credit line:  © 2011 The LeWitt Estate/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
Photo credit: Peter Harholdt

Sol LeWitt was one of the most influential artists of the 20th century.  LeWitt helped reinvent contemporary art in the 1960's. He not only established a new relationship between art and architecture, he also helped transform the way in which art is understood. LeWitt believed that by removing emotion from the work, the viewer could then focus on the idea behind the work and the information that is being transmitted. He began using the geometric form of the square after concluding that the process and system of art-making is best revealed through simple, recognizable forms.

By 1963, LeWitt was building freestanding boxes made out of plywood and painting them white, which he felt minimized emotional reaction.  The following year he built a cube presenting only its frame.  This work is from LeWitt's Incomplete Open Cube series of sculptures.  Together they represent all the possible permutations of an unfinished cube, beginning with three lines that describe the three dimensions essential to sculpture: height, width and depth.