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Contributor:
Indianapolis Museum of Art
Babble On. | Login
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Channels: Contemporary ArtSol LeWitt
Go behind the scenes at the Indianapolis Museum of Art to experience the planning, team work, and meticulous process of bringing Connecticut artist Sol LeWitt's large scale mural to life.
"Sol LeWitt: For All To See" is courtesy of Across Indiana and was produced by WFYI.org. Many thanks to them!
There is no question that he is one of the most important American artists living today.
So, the chance to have a major piece, of this scale, is extraordinary, and in Indiana... we're very lucky.
The "he" is Connecticut-born artist Sol LeWitt, and it's not that he set the art world on its ear, back in 60s, with a new way of making and thinking about art, although he did.
And it's not that he turned a generation of minimalists and conceptual artists into a worldwide movement to be reckoned with, although he did that, too.
It’s the unique way he thinks about the creative process.
He viewed himself very much like a composer of music. It was the written instructions, along with a diagram, that actually was the work of art,
and then, subsequent artists could re-interpret and re-execute that original score.
When an artist uses a conceptual form of art, it means that all of the planning and decisions are made beforehand.
The idea becomes a machine that makes the art. The execution is a perfunctory affair.
Try convincing this team of seven artists that it’s all a "perfunctory affair". They have been working for five pain-staking weeks to move LeWitt’s "Wall Drawing 652,"
from an area made inaccessible by the museum's renovation, to here, a new three-story atrium where everyone who enters the IMA can enjoy it.
It’s quite an eclectic mix of artists. Many of them are students.
It’s great, like, working on a piece that's going to be here for a while, so I think that has a lot to do with the motivation for the project, because you have no creative input into it,
but, I mean, you get experience, learning how things work and, like, a mural this size, I mean, there is a lot of planning for it.
Like any orchestra, the conductors who blend this talented crew together, Tomas Ramberg and Sarah Hyneman, have been well-chosen to bring LeWitt’s creation to life.
I am kind of independent once this project starts. He has, in a way, finished his part of the job, which is the plan.
At the point where I take over, it’s... it’s kind of me and the people I work with. We, together, make the work.
Team art.... hmmm.... now that’s a concept, and one that requires an incredible attention to detail.
The components of the piece is points, lines, the three primary colors and gray. The points are laid out, connected by the lines.
Then inside of each of the shapes are the letter R, B, Y, and G, for the different colors. Each of the letters means a particular procedure of applying that color,
alternating between two different kinds of application. Wiping the ink on, or dabbing the ink on, so that each of the color represents three coats.
Basically, we kind of retrace the procedure that Sol did when he made the plan, we do that directly on the wall.
And you can see on the plan where Sol made the adjustments. Below this line is where Sol has added new points, lines, and colors.
We're constantly looking for meaningful ways to engage the community in projects here and, to me, this is an example of really successful collaboration.
The dynamics have been excellent. They have to work as a team in order for it to succeed, and they've been doing that beautifully.
Yet even the most specific of instructions require an artist’s loving hand, and work is punctuated by calls to Sol LeWitt himself to make absolutely sure his vision is being implemented as planned.
Sol LeWitt’s sculpture, paintings, and wall drawings have been exhibited in the Hague, the Hirshhorn, London’s Tate Museum, and the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago.
Now, once again, you can add the Indianapolis Museum of Art to the list. And although group art seems to fly in the face of that intensely personal experience that most of us assume painting is,
each member of the team is able to take away a unique piece of private satisfaction.
As an artist, you don’t get too many opportunities to really work in collaboration, in order to create one thing. There is this experience that happens,
from a little black and white drawing, with random dots, and connected lines with random color combinations, just the aesthetics that happen, afterwards, and the group experiencing it.
There is no doubt that something more than mere "connecting the dots" is that work here. You can call Sol LeWitt the ultimate pragmatist when it comes to putting his work on canvas,
but even he admits that there is a time when the best-conceived art leaves the real world behind, and enters a realm understood only by the heart.
Artists are mystics rather than rationalists. They leap to conclusions that logic cannot make.
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