SOL LEWITT AND CARL ANDRE IN CLASS PROJECT

We will divide the class in half and work together in groups. 

Group #1 will attempt to replicate a Carl Andre sculpture from wood pieces found in the scrap bin. The piece must be precise, even, and stacked perfectly as Andre's work is.

About Carl Andre:

Carl Andre (born September 16, 1935) is an American minimalist artist and recognized for his ordered linear format and grid format sculptures. His sculptures range from large public artworks (such as Stone Field Sculpture, 1977 in Hartford, CT and Lament for the Children, 1976 in Long Island City, NY) to more intimate tile patterns arranged on the floor of an exhibition space (such as 144 Lead Square, 1969 or Twenty-fifth Steel Cardinal, 1974). Andre's early work in wood may have been inspired by Brâncuși, but his conversations with Stella about space and form led him in a different direction. While sharing a studio with Stella, Andre developed a series of wooden "cut" sculptures (such as Radial Arm Saw cut sculpture, 1959, and Maple Spindle Exercise, 1959). Stella is noted as having said to Andre (regarding hunks of wood removed from Andre's sculpture) "Carl, that's sculpture, too."

Group #2 will attempt to create a Sol Lewitt Wall Drawing on the dry erase board. You will pick one of the following sets of directions and complete it to the best of your ability. The drawings are very precise so rulers should be used. Examples are of other Wall Drawings.

At 2:30, we will stop to critique then switch, group #1 will do a drawing and group #2 will make a sculpture.

Wall Drawing 1

Bands of lines 12 inches (30 cm) wide, in three directions (vertical, horizontal, diagonal right) intersecting.

September 1969

Black pencil

Collection Michalke

First Installation
Institute of Contemporary Art, London

First Drawn By
James Walker

MASS MoCA Building 7
Ground Floor

Early in his career, Sol LeWitt began to have others help execute his wall drawings. Wall Drawing ##, for example, was first drawn by James Walker. By allowing other draftsmen to realize his work according to his instructions and diagrams, LeWitt addressed practical concerns such as the time-consuming nature of the drawings. More significantly, however, this choice articulated LeWitt’’s belief that the conception of the idea, rather than its execution, constitutes the art work. He was also rejecting the traditional importance assigned to the artist’s own hand.

LeWitt executed the earliest wall drawings within a square, usually four by four feet wide, but by 1969 he was using the entire wall, as evident in Wall Drawing ##.

Wall Drawing 2

Vertical lines, not straight, not touching, covering the wall evenly.

May 1970

Black pencil

LeWitt Collection, Chester, Connecticut

First Installation

Yvon Lambert Gallery, Paris

First Drawn By

Sol LeWitt

MASS MoCA Building 7
Ground Floor

This wall drawing is dedicated to sculptor Eva Hesse. Sol LeWitt and Hesse were close friends, and LeWitt credits Hesse’’s aesthetic sensibilities with motivating his use of the ‘not straight’ line. This type of mark appears here for the first time, in the drawing originally executed two days after Hesse’’s death. Subsequent drawings saw the use of not straight lines in four colors and in various combinations with straight lines, broken lines and arcs.

The drawing is often done by a single draftsman in order to achieve a consistency in line density and thickness. The process of drafting Wall Drawing ## begins with stretching vertical plumb lines in string over the wall to help the draftsman maintain the essential verticality of the lines. Then, the draftsman begins by making longer marks all over the wall, filling in the available spaces with shorter lines until the wall is evenly covered.

Backstory

Not explicitly involved with the retrospective, Jo Watanabe, Sol LeWitt’’s long-time associate and the current director of the print shop for PaceWildenstein in New York, agreed to execute Wall Drawing ## at MASS MoCA as a tribute to LeWitt. This wall drawing is often referred to as LeWitt’’s favorite, and certainly connotes a personal significance to the artist in its dedication.

Wall Drawing 3

A 6-inch (15 cm) grid covering the wall. Within each square, not straight lines in either of four directions. Only one direction in each square but as many as desired, and at least one line in each square.

June 1971

Black pencil

Milwaukee Art Museum, Gift of Friends of Art, M2006.1

First Installation

The Milwaukee Art Center, Milwaukee

First Drawn By

William Torphy

MASS MoCA Building 7
Ground Floor

Dating from June 1971, Wall Drawing ## is exemplary of Sol LeWitt’’s interest in indeterminacy. The piece embraces a dynamic relationship between the artist, the draftsman, and the work itself, in which the parameters of the work are predetermined by the artist, but certain fundamental elements – the direction, number, and form of the lines – are left to the draftsman’s interpretation. Thus, each execution of the drawing differs greatly, challenging the notion that there is one specific realization of an artwork. The boundaries of Wall Drawing ## extend beyond this wall to the infinite set of hypothetical instances. The wall drawing was created during a period of broad experimentation for LeWitt.