This is the most extensive exhibition of Sol LeWitt’s wall drawings in Scandinavia to date. The American artist was born in 1928 and passed away in 2007. A number of retrospective exhibitions focusing on his wall drawings have taken place in the USA since 2000, most notably at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (2000), Dia Beacon, New York (ongoing) and the ambitious large-scale presentation at Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art, North Adams (2008-2033). In Europe the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam presented a retrospective with LeWitt’s wall drawings in 1984, which was followed by an exhibition at Kunsthalle Bern in 1989. In Sweden individual wall drawings have been shown at Galleri Aronowitsch, Stockholm (1982), Moderna Museet, Stockholm (1984), Galleriet, Lund (in 1983 and 1987) and at the Nordic Watercolour Museum, Tjörn, Gothenburg (2002) amongst others.

All seven works installed at Magasin 3 Stockholm Konsthall August – September 2009 and drawn by: Jonas Bouleau, Daniel Diamant, Johan Eliasson, Anton Elfving, Jessica Granberg, John Hogan, Björn Kjelltoft, Lisa Källsen, Tomas Nilsson, Kerstin Olsson, Anthony Sansotta, Wim Starkenburg, Dit-Cilinn Sundqvist, Cristoffer Reschke and Linn Wikingdal

”Wall Drawing #51”, June 1970
All architectural points connected by straight lines. Blue snap lines.
Courtesy LeWitt Collection, Chester, CT
First installation in Sperone Gallery, Turin, Italy and Museo di Torino, Turin, Italy
First drawn by: P. Giacchi, A. Giamasco, G. Mosca

”Wall Drawing #85”, June 1971
Four color composite/pencil. A wall is divided into four horizontal parts. In the top row are four equal divisions, each with lines in a different direction. In the second row, six double combinations; in the third row, four triple combinations; in the bottom row, all four combinations superimposed.
Courtesy LeWitt Collection, Chester, CT
First installation: LeWitt residence, New York
First drawn by: Sol LeWitt

”Wall Drawing #111”, September 1971
A wall divided vertically into five equal parts, with ten thousand lines in each part: 1st) 6″ (15 cm) long; 2nd) 12″ (30 cm) long; 3rd) 18″ (45 cm) long; 4th) 24″ (60 cm) long; 5th) 30″ (75 cm) long. Pencil.
Courtesy Estate of Sol LeWitt
First installation: John Weber Gallery, New York, NY
First drawn by: R. Cutrone, P. Graf, S. Kato, J. Marasco, J. Nyeboe, M. Stamos, B. Walker, R. Watanabe, M. Wheeler

”Wall Drawing #123”, 1972
Copied lines. The first drafter draws a not straight vertical line as long as possible. The second drafter draws a line next to the first one, trying to copy it. The third drafter does the same, as do as many drafters as possible. Then the first drafter, followed by the others, copies the last line drawn until both ends of the wall are reached. Pencil.
Courtesy Addison Gallery of American Art, Philips Academy, Andover, Massachusetts. 1991.20 gift of the artist, Addison Art Drive

”Wall Drawing #124”, March 1972
Horizontal not straight lines. Each drafter draws one not straight horizontal line from the left side of the wall to the right. The lines should not touch. There are as many lines as drafters; each draws one.
Pencil.
Courtesy Estate of Sol LeWitt
First installation: California Institute of the Arts, Valencia, CA
First drawn by: C. Kaufman, S. Kuffler, M. Mullican, R. Rosenwasser, J. Stein, J. Welling

”Wall Drawing #422”, November 1984
The room (or wall) is divided vertically into fifteen parts. All one-, two-, three-, and four part combinations of four colors, using color ink washes. Color ink wash.
Courtesy Estate of Sol LeWitt
First installation: Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, the Netherlands
First drawn by: A. Sansotta, M. Schouten, W. Starkenburg, W. Wolff

”Wall Drawing #715”, February 1993
On a black wall, pencil scribbles to maximum density. Pencil.
Courtesy Estate of Sol LeWitt
First installation: Addison Gallery of American Art, Phillips Academy, Andover, MA
First drawn by: S. Abugov, S. Cathcart, A. Dittmer, F. Dittmer, L. Fan, C. Hejtmanek, S. Hellmuth, D. Johnson, A. Moger, A. Myers, J. Noble, G. Reynolds, A. Ross, A. Sansotta, J. Wrobel. (Varnished by John Hogan)

LECTURE BY SABETH BUCHMANN

THURSDAY MAY 6, 6–7PM

It is difficult to bungle a good idea*
– Conceptual art and Sol LeWitt’s Wall Drawings.

“Drawing environments. On the ‘technology’ of Sol LeWitt’s Wall Drawings.” Sabeth Buchmann is an art historian and critic. She is professor for modern and postmodern art at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna and Chair of the Institute for Art Theory and Cultural Studies. She writes contributions for books, magazines and catalogues regularly and is a member of the Advisory board of the Berlin based magazine ‘Texte zur Kunst’. She is the author of “Denken gegen das Denken. Produktion – Technologie – Subjektivität bei Sol LeWitt, Hélio Oiticica und Yvonne Rainer” 2007 and Co-editor with Alexander Alberro of ”Art After Conceptual Art“ 2006.

*Sentences on Conceptual Art, Sol LeWitt exhibition catalogue, The Nordic Watercolour Museum 2002.

SOL LEWITT EVENING PROGRAM

THURSDAY MARCH 25, 6-8PM

Sol LeWitt always felt that he was best represented through his work and never liked the idea of being filmed or photographed. Follow the artist in a rare exception when we show a filmed conversation between Sol LeWitt and curator Gary Garrels. The evening starts at 6pm with a presentation of the exhibition “Seven Wall Drawings” by curator Elisabeth Millqvist accompanied by special guests who all have experience of LeWitt works. The film screening starts at 7pm. Free admission to the event. Welcome!

GUIDED TOUR OF “SEVEN WALL DRAWINGS”

SUNDAY FEBRUARY 28 AT 2PM

Curator Elisabeth Millqvist shows the exhibition and tells the history behind Sol LeWitt’s famous wall drawings.

GUIDED TOUR OF “SEVEN WALL DRAWINGS”

SUNDAY OCTOBER 18 AT 2PM

Curator Elisabeth Millqvist shows the exhibition and tells the history behind Sol LeWitt’s famous wall drawings.

The exhibition with wall drawings was realized by 14 draftsmen during 6 weeks. Curator Elisabeth Millqvist shares her thoughts about the work.

THE WORK HAS BEGUN

After one installation week
Question from the assistant:
–what do you do about mistakes?
–There is white paint
2-3 assistants have sharpened pencils for a whole day.
Wall drawing 715 has the instruction: ”On a black wall, pencil scribbles to maximum density”.

The 22 meter black wall is slowly filled. After 3 days Anthony Sansotta from Sol LeWitt’s studio comments:”nice foundation”. It takes four weeks of work before it is finished.

INSTALLATION WORK AUGUST 31.”No matter how mundane some action might appear, keep at it long enough and it becomes a contemplative, even meditative act.” writes novelist Haruki Murakami in the book What I talk about when I talk about running (2008). He refers to Somerset Maugham who wrote: ”in each shave lies a philosophy”. I don’t know so much about the latter but the former is one of my points of entry into Sol LeWitt’s work. What’s important is the idea. No decisions are made in the process but in his exhaustion of all possible line combinations a philosophical dimension is born. His work on the so-called wall drawings, drawings directly onto a wall, add thoughts on art and life that changes my perception and understanding. It was this feeling that made me want to do an exhibition of wall drawings.

INSTALLATION OF WALL DRAWING #111. LeWitt wrote the following in 1971 under the heading ”Doing Wall Drawings”:” The artist conceives of and plans the wall drawing. It is executed by the draftsman (the artist can be his own draftsman), the plan (written, spoken or drawn) is interpreted by the draftsman.” In the list of those who at one point or another have executed wall drawings the name of artist Adrian Piper crops up (wall drawing 24, 1969). At Magasin 3 the following artists and art students are engaged: Jonas Bouleau, Daniel Diamant, Johan Eliasson, Anton Elfving, Jessica Granberg, Björn Kjelltoft, Lisa Källsen, Tomas Nilsson, Kersin Olsson, Dit –Cilinn Sundqvist, Cristoffer Reschke and Linn Wikingdal (from the Royal University College of Fine Arts and Gerleborgskolan).

INCLUDED ON THE SHOPPING LIST we have had 244 pencil leds (2mm 2B), 12 pencil sharpeners, 20 pencil holders, 18 rolls of tape, paint (Mars Black, Pyrrole Red, Quinacridoe Rose Deep, Cadmium Yellow Medium, Phthalo, Blue Deep), 15 liters of varnish, Indigo Blue chalk pigment (500 g), four 3 meter long wooden rulers, 30 l distilled water, a liquid measure, cloth rags, 3 scaffolds (with wheels), 7 stepladders and a good deal more. LeWitt is a pioneer within Conceptual Art. In 1967 he wrote ”Paragraphs on Conceptual Art” which is counted as the first manifesto of Conceptual Art. Conceptual Art has changed since then, become a field of different trajectories, but his work emphasizes that which is most fundamental – the idea is what’s important. The instructions together with the executed wall drawing constitute the art. In contrast to this the preparations for the execution are very concrete.

ANYONE CAN DO WALL DRAWINGS is what LeWitt thought originally but he changed his mind. Nowadays, after his death, the work is overseen by assistants from his studio who all worked with him at one point. At Magasin 3 the work is headed by Anthony Sansotta, Wim Starkenberg and eventually also John Hogan. It’s been two years since LeWitt died. It remains to be seen how his wall drawings will be produced. LeWitt’s studio would like the white walls to be a bluish white (a cold color) and prescribe the roller size to be used when the walls are painted. I don’t know what LeWitt’s attitude was but he said that ”different kinds of walls makes for different kinds of drawings”. This is far from a free interpretation, not even close to this summer’s staging of Strindberg’s Fröken Julie, where Miss Julie is an already mature women that falls in love with a young African instead of an aristocratic young lady in love with her fathers valet.

WORKS BASED ON THE LINE are the focus of the exhibition at Magasin 3. This is a way of highlighting constraints and the possible variations within them. LeWitt’s first wall drawing was executed in graphite for an exhibition at the Paula Cooper Gallery in 1968. The work was straight lines in four different directions. LeWitt was subsequently to spend the rest of his life working with lines and all their combinations imaginable. One writer likened his constant preoccupation with lines with the importance of Mont Sainte- Victoire for Cézanne – a constant return to the same motif. After a while he didn’t only use graphite but also colored pencil (wd #85) and eventually ink (wd # 422) and acrylic paint. The space shifted from its function as surface (the wall) to being a part of the work as architecture (wd #51), further more geometric shapes became a part of his artistic grammar. All of this opened up to new possible combinations that he constantly challenged. The artist wrote: ”irrational thoughts must be followed absolutely and logically.”

AN EXHIBITION OF LEWITT’S WORK IS NOTHING NEW. What is unique is how his art continues to be relevant and inspiring. In Sweden wall drawings have previously been installed at Galerie Aronowitsch where they showed the strict #371 in 1982. It is two black squares on their respective sides of a corner. One less black than the other. Anders Tornberg in Lund exhibited three geometric shapes against a black background in 1983, executed by the artist Carl Magnus. Olle Granath was in charge of the exhibition ”Vanishing Points” at Moderna Museet in 1984 which included two wall drawings. The Nordic Watercolour Museum, north of Gothenburg, produced wall drawing #1059 installed on several walls in vivid colors five years ago. The possibility of showing several works from different periods makes me very enthusiastic. It is easier to understand them and allow oneself to be overwhelmed by them when one sees several at a time; thus easier to gain a deeper understanding of an oeuvre. Fantastic. Finally Stockholm.