Sol LeWitt

John Weber Gallery, New York
Private Collection, Florida (acquired from the above in February 1990)
Sotheby's, New York, May 15, 2008, lot 109
Acquired by the present owner from the above sale

Lexington, University of Kentucky Art Museum, Sol LeWitt, 1978
Akron Art Institute, Five American Artists: Arthur Dove, Milton Avery, Robert Frank, Sol LeWitt, Jennifer Bartlett, September - November 1980

Exh. Cat., New York, Museum of Modern Art, Sol LeWitt, 1978, cat. no. 112, p. 69, illustrated

This work is in very good and sound condition overall. There are a few very minor areas of paint loss throughout the work as is typical with this white painted wood series. There are a few scattered and unobtrusive pinpoint spot accretions visible on the interior of the blocks.
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

“It doesn’t really matter if the viewer understands the concepts of the artist by seeing the art. Once it is out of his hand the artist has no control over the way a viewer will perceive the work. Different people will understand the same thing in a different way.” – Sol LeWitt 
 
Sol LeWitt was a masterfully innovative and particularly prolific artist, credited with playing a pivotal role in founding Conceptual Art and pioneering the Minimalist art movement. Throughout his career in the mid-to-late 20^th Century, LeWitt skillfully developed a precise visual lexicon with which he explored new possibilities for art production, utilizing only the most simplified elements of a distinct visual language. To LeWitt, the cube was a “grammatical device” with which he constructed remarkable works, such as Corner Piece #4, that amplified and explored the elegantly refined poetry found within line, form, serialization, and repetition. Through the basic use of repeated cubes, which in the artist’s eye were “relatively uninteresting […] and lacked the expressive force of more interesting forms and shapes,” LeWitt was able to create a participatory viewing experience in which his audience becomes able to complete the open structure conceptually.

Notably, LeWitt referred to his three-dimensional artworks not as sculptures but rather structures which both aptly describes the aesthetic qualities of these minimalist creations while also harkening back to his early architectural influences. In 1955, when the artist was just 27 years old and first exploring a professional interest in the visual arts, LeWitt took a job as a graphic designer in the office of the renowned architect I.M. Pei. The present work, Corner Piece #4, was produced about two decades later but it still maintains many of the architectural influences that LeWitt was surrounded by during those formative years of his early artistic career. Just as an architect drafts his blueprints with profound authority, Sol LeWitt believed strongly that the idea preceding the physical construction of an artwork was of primary importance. His practice followed a mathematical consciousness in addition to an intuitive creative process which resulted in a uniquely meditative aesthetic experience for the artist and viewer alike.