Sol LeWitt

From 30 October, the work of the American-Jewish artist Sol LeWitt will be on display in the Jewish Museum. Several meter-high wall drawings will be executed, especially for this exhibition. Sculptures, works on paper and archive material will also be on display. LeWitt is one of the founders of conceptual art, the notion that an idea can be art in itself. The exhibition examines Lewitt's Jewish background and special bond with the Netherlands.

Sol LeWitt

Location

Joods Museum

Nieuwe Amstelstraat 1

1011 PL Amsterdam

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Contact

communicatie@jck.nl

Wall drawings and cubes

Sol LeWitt is seen as a founder of both conceptual and minimal art. He believed that art does not necessarily have to be performed by the artist himself or at all - the idea is art in itself.

LeWitt made more than 1,200 'wall drawings'. He wrote precise instructions for this with which others can carry them out. The wall drawings are made for this exhibition by the Utrecht School of the Arts students. They exist only temporarily; after the exhibition, they are painted over. For his three-dimensional work, he chose the cube as the primary form. He called these sculptures 'structures'. They consist of white cubes in different compositions.

About Sol LeWitt (1928-2007)

Sol LeWitt was the son of Jewish immigrants from Russia. He led a secular life but identified with his Jewish heritage. His wife Carol describes LeWitt as "a very professed non-believer." In the 1980s, he became a Jewish community member, for which he eventually designed and built a synagogue. His Jewish identity is also reflected in several relatively unknown projects highlighted in the exhibition.

The Netherlands

Dutch museums, galleries, collectors and artists played an essential role in Sol LeWitt's career. His first retrospective in Europe was organized in 1970 by the Haags Gemeente Museum. He worked with the famous Amsterdam gallery Art & Project in that period. Many of LeWitt's friends are well-known names from the Dutch art scene in the 1970s, such as conceptual artist Jan Dibbets, curator Enno Develing and designer Martin Visser.