Multi-media vanguard Sol LeWitt's wall drawings at Paula Cooper Gallery engulf the viewer in a placid environment where beauty lies in subtle variation and astounding precision. A deviation from the artist's popular "structural" work, sometimes monumental in scale, and consisting largely of white beams or flawlessly designed three-dimensional grids that seem to foreshadow advanced digital architecture design programs available today, this selection of drawings reflects LeWitt's unique singular with a concept too often taken for granted: the line.
Sol LeWitt, Detail of Wall Drawing #122, January 1972, black pencil grid, blue crayon arcs and lines, dimensions variable
Sol LeWitt, Wall Drawing #392, 1983, Red, yellow, blue, black crayon, black pencil grid, white wall, dimensions variable
Sol LeWitt, Wall Drawing #393, 1983, Red, yellow, blue, black crayon, black pencil grid, white wall, dimensions variable
While shows such as MoMa's series "One Line" provide a survey of those artists, from Duchamp to Julie Mehretu, interested in directly addressing the most fundamental component of Modern and Contemporary Art, attention to the basis of drawing in itself is sparse. Paula Cooper's selection of three highly complex meditations on "line" remain truly immersive fostering a challenging but thoroughly worthwhile viewing expiring during which one's mind runs through the endless series of combinations and permutations set before us on expansive white walls.
Drawn at Paula Cooper Gallery by Sachiko Cho, Brianne Caitlin Doak, Lacey Fekishazy, Clinton King, Hidemi Nomura
All Images © Estate of Sol LeWitt / ARS, New York. Courtesy Paula Cooper Gallery, New York
Sol LeWitt, "Arcs and Lines," Paula Cooper Gallery, 534 West 21st Street, Through July 1, 2011