Artist conceptual sol lewitt biography
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Biography of Sol LeWitt, Conceptual and Minimalist Artist
Solomon "Sol" LeWitt (September 9, 1928–April 8, 2007) was an American artist regarded as a pioneer in both the Conceptual and Minimalist Art movements. LeWitt stated that ideas, not physical creations, are the substance of art. He developed instructions for wall drawings that are still being created to this day.
Fast Facts: Sol LeWitt
- Occupation: Artist
- Artistic Movements: Conceptual and Minimalist Art
- Born: September 9, 1928 in Hartford, Connecticut
- Died: April 8, 2007 in New York City, New York
- Education: Syracuse University, School of Visual Arts
- Selected Works: "Lines in Four Directions" (1985), "Wall Drawing #652" (1990), "9 Towers" (2007)
- Notable Quote: "The idea becomes the machine that makes the art."
Early Life and Education
Born in Hartford, Connecticut, Sol LeWitt grew up in a family of Russian Jewish immigrants. His father died when Sol was only
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Summary of Sol LeWitt
Sol LeWitt earned a place in the history of art for his leading role in the Conceptual movement. His belief in the artist as a generator of ideas was instrumental in the transition from the modern to the postmodern era. Conceptual art, expounded by LeWitt as an intellectual, pragmatic act, added a new dimension to the artist's role that was distinctly separate from the romantic nature of Abstract Expressionism. LeWitt believed the idea itself could be the work of art, and maintained that, like an architect who creates a blueprint for a building and then turns the project over to a construction crew, an artist should be able to conceive of a work and then either delegate its actual production to others or perhaps even never make it at all. LeWitt's work ranged from sculpture, painting, and drawing to almost exclusively conceptual pieces that existed only as ideas or elements of the artistic process itself.
Accomplishments
- LeWitt's refined vocabulary of v
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Sol LeWitt (1928 – 2007)
Sol LeWitt was born on September 9th, 1928 in Hartford, Connecticut to Eastern European immigrants. His father, a doctor and uppfinnare, died when he was 6. Soon after, he moved with his mother, a sjuksköterska, to live with an aunt in New Britain, Connecticut. His mother took him to art classes at the Wadsworth Atheneum in Hartford and he would draw on wrapping paper from his aunt’s grocery store.
LeWitt received a BFA from Syracuse University in 1949 (where he made his first prints) and then was drafted in the Korean War in 1951. During his service, he made posters for the Special Services and spent time in Japan, where he bought the first works that became the basis of a large personal art collection.
In 1953, he moved to New York City, where he studied at the Cartoonists and Illustrators School (now the School of Visual Arts) and worked for Seventeen Magazine, making paste-ups, mechanicals and Photostats. He was then hired as a graphi