Another line drawing by Sol Lewitt (not the piece in question)

This Tuesday, I spent the better part of the morning in Smith’s museum of art. It’s the second exhibition I’ve been to with the students I am TA’ing for. We went there specifically to see a pencil wall drawing that was conceived by the late artist, Sol Lewitt. I say conceived because he didn’t actually make the wall drawing with his hands. Lewitt died in April but his work keeps getting made.

Lewitt was known for making minimalist sculptures and drawings as well as many other forms of conceptual art. One concept he carried out consistently was to write up very simple directions for wall drawings and sell the directions to patrons and curators. Here is how one such set of instructions was given to Smith College and then implemented:

“In 2000, a member of the class of 1947 gave the anonymous gift of Sol LeWitt’s Wall Drawing #139 (Grid and arcs from the midpoints of four sides) (1972). This important early wall drawing, which is executed in black pencil, will be installed at SCMA for the first time in January 2008. A trained assistant from LeWitt’s New York studio will supervise three Smith students in the execution of the drawing on the wall of the Ketcham Gallery on the Museum’s third floor. To provide a context for LeWitt’s overall body of work, the installation will also contain a rotating selection of works in other media by the artist, including sculpture, drawings, and prints.” –from the Smith website

The wall drawing is now complete and stands roughly ten feet tall and twenty feet wide. I wish I could show a picture of it but I cannot find any as of yet. The curator showed us the original instructions. They are printed on one piece of letter sized paper and shows a tiny diagram of arcs radiating outward from each side of the wall. The final product looks like an enormous sheet of graph paper with perfect arcs radiating from the bottom, top, left, and right.

I was surprised at how much appreciation the younger students showed for work. They were very interested in the logistics of its creation and they also begun talking about what this kind of work means for value and preservation. The wall drawing isn’t framed on a canvas that can be moved or stored. It’s on a wall that will be painted over when its time comes. It was also not crafted by the artist himself, therefore, who owns it?

Because of some of the issues raised, the students will be reading Walter Benjamin’s Art in the age of mechanical reproduction. It will give me a good chance to read over it again and post some thoughts.