Solomon ‘Sol’ LeWitt had a major impact on the Conceptual Art movement through his distinctive approach to creating artwork intuitively. Born in Connecticut in 1928, LeWitt went on to receive his Bachelor of Fine Arts from Syracuse University in 1949. In 1951, he was drafted for the Korean War where his duties included creating posters for the Special Services Division. Following his release, he moved to New York where he studied at, what is now, the School of Visual Arts while interning as a graphic designer for several magazines including Seventeen. He was employed by the architectural office of I.M Pei in 1955, and in 1960 he worked as a receptionist at the Museum of Modern Art, New York.
LeWitt has been exhibited around the world since 1965. His body of work places importance on the process of creation and is often rooted in intellectual thought. Comprised of simplified shapes, colors, and lines his work challenged modern notions of art by exploring ideas over aesthetics. He worked in a wide range of media from two-dimensional wall drawings, of which he created an estimated 1,200 during his career, to monumental outdoor installations. In addition, he produced more than 50 artist’s books in conjunction with his nonprofit organization Printed Matter and contributed landscape design to Philadelphia’s Fairmount Park. LeWitt’s permanent murals reside in the Embassy of the United States in Berlin, the Columbus Circle Subway Station, New York, and The Jewish Museum, New York among others.
In his life, LeWitt supported his peers and the artistic community, and he was a friend and collector of many artists. His works are held in some of the most prestigious collections including the Art Institute of Chicago, the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., the Tate Gallery in London, the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, the Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, and the Guggenheim Museum, the Museum of Modern Art, New York among many others. Sol LeWitt died in 2007 in New York City.
