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Ensayo del lote
Using the minimalist vocabulary of the 1960s to produce logical systems, Sol LeWitt broke from the Duchampian view of conceptual art and strove to explore a more pure idea of Conceptualism, emphasizing the primacy of the idea in art-making. LeWitt contends that “ideas can be works of art; they are in a chain of development that may eventually find some form” (S. LeWitt quoted in R. Rosenblum, Sol LeWitt, exh. cat., The Museum of Modern Art, New York, 1978, p. 16). In some ways more like a draftsman, composer, or designer, LeWitt’s ideas are two-dimensional in origin. Once the idea has been fully understood, only then can it be set free in the three-dimensional world to, perhaps, eventually find physicality in the form of a completed structure. The modular unit of the cube and the grid enable these ideas to take shape and are ultimately the building blocks that transform the invisible into the visual. As LeWitt himself explains, “The system is the work of art; the visual work of art is the proof of the system. The visual aspect can’t be understood without understanding the system. It isn’t what it looks like but what it is that is of basic importance” (S. Lewitt quoted in S. Ostrow, "Sol LeWitt. Interview by Saul Ostrow,” BOMB Magazine, fall 2003).
Cube Structure Based on Five Modules not only exemplifies the aesthetic hallmarks of LeWitt's Minimalist vision, such as seriality and geometry, but reveals how visually stunning Sol LeWitt’s ideas can be when they take form. While steeped in a cerebral, verbal and geometric system, the visual impact of the structure is immediate and visceral. Against white walls, the skinless cubes and the skeletal white beams of the grid interact with and permeate the space, at moments creating the sensation of space itself expanding. Modular cubes are stacked, re-arranged, clustered and juxtaposed to transform the simple grid structure into a geometric symphony. The free-standing structure, as curator Alicia Legg writes, “holds the floor” (A. Legg, Op. cit., p. 6). The work’s receding perspective creates a kinetic passage as the viewer approaches, its geometric patterns flattening, expanding, collapsing, and reconfiguring in an undulating optic song. It is within this activated and immediate experience that such eponymous works as Cube Structure Based on Five Modules are pulled out of the purely intellectual and mathematic realm, and provided with a uniquely emotional and somatic flavor.
Never frozen in one visual conclusion, Cube Structure Based on Five Modules underscores how LeWitt’s structures are constantly evolving and open to change. As Lucy Lippard explains, “Only [Sol LeWitt’s] work can be said to articulate the moment in artistic thinking when a structure opens to questioning and reorganizes itself according to a new meaning which is nevertheless the meaning of the same structure, but taken to a new level of complexity" (L. Lippard, Ibid., p. 27). The artist’s white, open, cube-based modular structure represents both the outcome of the thinking of the preceding years and the syntactical basis for future structures. Earlier structural ideas that would become Cube Structure Based on Five Modules were originally expressed in black paint with solid cubes. However, when deciding to strip the walls of the modular units to reveal the corporal body underneath and adjusting to white paint, Sol LeWitt explains, “This seemed more appropriate for the forms and mitigated the expressiveness of the earlier black pieces. The white wall structures were visually more a part of a white wall” (S. LeWitt quoted in Sol LeWitt: A Retrospective, exh. cat., San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, 2000, p. 28). At the same time, LeWitt also decided to apply a consistent ratio of 1:8:5 to the material, explaining that, while like the move to white paint, the 1:8:5 ratio was a relatively arbitrary decision: “Once it had been decided upon, it was always used” (Ibid.).
Ideas of play and collaboration are at the heart of works such as Cube Structure Based on Five Modules and are imperative to understanding Sol LeWitt’s oeuvre. Here, “play” is defined as the most profound form of creative discovery and imbues his work with an electricity accessible to anyone who wishes to take part. As a great piece of music is a collaboration between composer and player, Sol LeWitt’s work is a collaboration between artist and viewer. In an interview with Paul Cummings, Sol LeWitt explains, “I always equate [my structures] to a musical performance. Every time you hear the same Bach piano or harpsichord thing it's different even with the same person… Whoever does it will leave their mark on it. In a way it's good that the draftsman has a part in it, and it's not just the artist doing it. It's a collaboration” (Oral history interview with Sol LeWitt, 1974 July 15, Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution).
Cube Structure Based on Five Modules not only exemplifies the aesthetic hallmarks of LeWitt's Minimalist vision, such as seriality and geometry, but reveals how visually stunning Sol LeWitt’s ideas can be when they take form. While steeped in a cerebral, verbal and geometric system, the visual impact of the structure is immediate and visceral. Against white walls, the skinless cubes and the skeletal white beams of the grid interact with and permeate the space, at moments creating the sensation of space itself expanding. Modular cubes are stacked, re-arranged, clustered and juxtaposed to transform the simple grid structure into a geometric symphony. The free-standing structure, as curator Alicia Legg writes, “holds the floor” (A. Legg, Op. cit., p. 6). The work’s receding perspective creates a kinetic passage as the viewer approaches, its geometric patterns flattening, expanding, collapsing, and reconfiguring in an undulating optic song. It is within this activated and immediate experience that such eponymous works as Cube Structure Based on Five Modules are pulled out of the purely intellectual and mathematic realm, and provided with a uniquely emotional and somatic flavor.
Never frozen in one visual conclusion, Cube Structure Based on Five Modules underscores how LeWitt’s structures are constantly evolving and open to change. As Lucy Lippard explains, “Only [Sol LeWitt’s] work can be said to articulate the moment in artistic thinking when a structure opens to questioning and reorganizes itself according to a new meaning which is nevertheless the meaning of the same structure, but taken to a new level of complexity" (L. Lippard, Ibid., p. 27). The artist’s white, open, cube-based modular structure represents both the outcome of the thinking of the preceding years and the syntactical basis for future structures. Earlier structural ideas that would become Cube Structure Based on Five Modules were originally expressed in black paint with solid cubes. However, when deciding to strip the walls of the modular units to reveal the corporal body underneath and adjusting to white paint, Sol LeWitt explains, “This seemed more appropriate for the forms and mitigated the expressiveness of the earlier black pieces. The white wall structures were visually more a part of a white wall” (S. LeWitt quoted in Sol LeWitt: A Retrospective, exh. cat., San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, 2000, p. 28). At the same time, LeWitt also decided to apply a consistent ratio of 1:8:5 to the material, explaining that, while like the move to white paint, the 1:8:5 ratio was a relatively arbitrary decision: “Once it had been decided upon, it was always used” (Ibid.).
Ideas of play and collaboration are at the heart of works such as Cube Structure Based on Five Modules and are imperative to understanding Sol LeWitt’s oeuvre. Here, “play” is defined as the most profound form of creative discovery and imbues his work with an electricity accessible to anyone who wishes to take part. As a great piece of music is a collaboration between composer and player, Sol LeWitt’s work is a collaboration between artist and viewer. In an interview with Paul Cummings, Sol LeWitt explains, “I always equate [my structures] to a musical performance. Every time you hear the same Bach piano or harpsichord thing it's different even with the same person… Whoever does it will leave their mark on it. In a way it's good that the draftsman has a part in it, and it's not just the artist doing it. It's a collaboration” (Oral history interview with Sol LeWitt, 1974 July 15, Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution).