Jörg Immendorff

(Bleckede, 14 de junio de 1945 - Düsseldorf, 28 de mayo de 2007) fue un pintor neoexpresionista alemán.

Discípulo de Joseph Beuys, formado en la Academia de Bellas Artes de Dusseldorf, fue uno de los más destacados pintores alemanes de la posguerra al que se le encuadra en la escuela de los denominados nuevos fauves. Del conjunto de su obra destaca la serie de la década de 1970 titulada Café Deutschland, donde trataba la división entre la República Federal de Alemania y la República Democrática. Amigo personal del ex Canciller de Alemania, Gerhard Schröder, uno de sus últimos trabajos fue la realización de un retrato del mismo una vez concluido su mandato para la denominada Galería de los cancilleres en Berlín. Fue profesor de la Academia de Bellas Artes de Múnich.

En el ámbito político, fue un maoísta confeso, muy crítico con el pasado nazi alemán y un ferviente defensor de la protección del medio ambiente.






Society of Deficiency

Café Deutschland:
Contemplating The Question - Where Do I Stand


Marcel's Salvation

Gyntiana: Birth/Onion Man


Solo

Door to The Sun


All's Well That Ends Well

Jörg Immendorff (born June 14, 1945 in Bleckede near Lüneburg, died May 28, 2007 in Düsseldorf) was one of the best known contemporary German painters; he was also a sculptor, stage designer and art professor.

He studied at the Art Academy in Düsseldorf (Kunstakademie Düsseldorf) under Joseph Beuys. The academy expelled him because of some of his political and neo-dadaist actions. From 1969 to 1980 he worked as an art teacher at a public school, and then as a free artist, holding visiting professorships all over Europe. In 1989 he became professor at the Städelschule in Frankfurt am Main; since 1996 he has been professor at the Art Academy in Düsseldorf -- the same school that had dismissed him as a student.

His paintings are sometimes reminiscent of surrealism and often use heavy symbolism to convey political ideas. He was a member of the German art movement Neue Wilde. Best known is his Cafe Deutschland series of sixteen large paintings (1977-1984) that were inspired by Renato Guttuso’s Caffè Greco; in it, Immendorff had disco-goers symbolize the conflict between East and West Germany. Since the 1970s, he worked closely with the painter A. R. Penck from Dresden (in East Germany). In his most recent work, a "painter monkey" often appeared, as an ironic commentary on the artist's business. He named one of his first acclaimed works "Hört auf zu malen!" ("Stop painting!") [1]

He created several stage designs, including two for the Salzburg Festival. In 1984 he opened the bar La Paloma near the Reeperbahn in Hamburg St. Pauli and created a large bronze sculpture of Hans Albers there. He also contributed to the design of André Heller's avant-garde amusement park "Luna, Luna" in 1987. Immendorff created various sculptures; one spectacular example is a 25 m tall iron sculpture in the form of an oak tree trunk, erected in Riesa in 1999.

In 1997 he won the best endowed art prize in the world, the MARCO prize of the Museum of Contemporary Art in Monterrey, Mexico. In the following year he received the merit medal (Bundesverdienstkreuz) of the Federal Republic of Germany. Reportedly he is the favorite painter of former German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder, who chose Immendorff to paint the official portrait of Schröder for the Bundeskanzerleramt. The portrait, which was completed by Immendorff's assistants, was revealed to the public in January 2007; the massive work has ironic character, showing the former Chancellor in stern heroic pose, in the colors of the German flag, painted in the style of an icon, surrounded by little monkeys.[2] These monkeys were a recurring theme in Immendorff's work.

Immendorf skillfully used the media for self-promotion. In 2000, his wedding to his Bulgarian former student Oda Jaune more than 30 years his junior became a public event. The two had daughter, Ida, who was born on August 13, 2001.

[edit] Drug scandal

In August 2003 Jörg Immendorff was caught in the luxury suite of a Düsseldorf hotel with seven prostitutes (and four more on their way) and some cocaine. More cocaine was found in his studio; all in all, the found substances contained 6.6 grams of pure cocaine, above the legal threshold for personal use. In interviews, he attempted to explain his actions with his terminal illness and as an expression of his "orientalism" that provided inspiration for his work. He also complained about prostitutes "who don't understand that a good whore does not divulge anything about her clients."[3] He cooperated with the prosecution, admitted to having taken cocaine since the early 1990s and supplied the name of his dealer. At the trial in July 2004, he admitted to having organized 27 similar orgies between February 2001 and August 2003. He was sentenced to 11 months on probation and was fined 150,000 Euros. The mild verdict was justified with Immendorff's illness and his extensive confession. He had been suspended from his position at the university but was reinstated after the verdict.

In March 2004, a woman had attempted to blackmail Immendorff, threatening to divulge further details of the orgies. Immendorff notified the police and she was arrested. Her trial started in September 2004.

[edit] Disease and death

Immendorff was diagnosed with ALS (Lou Gehrig's disease) in 1998. When he could not paint with his left hand any more, he switched to the right. In 2004 he funded a stipend to research the disease.

In November 2005 he was treated by emergency physicians and was admitted to a hospital, where a tracheotomy had to be performed to help him breathe. As of 2006, he was wheelchair-bound and did not paint anymore; instead he directed his assistants to paint following his instructions. On May 27, 2007, at age 61, he succumbed to the disease.[1]

Donald Judd

Ha sido unos de los artista minimalistas, cuyo trabajo, desarrollando unos presupuestos teóricos que, apenas variaron desde los años 60, ha merecido un interés particular com referente en las últimas décadas, ya sea como modelo de la evolucion material de la idea de proyecto como la idea de una vida artística.








Rainer (left) and Flavin Judd have worked to preserve their father's legacy.




"Who?" I asked myself. Never heard of this dude, but I bet I can tell the difference between furniture made by a "famous minimalist sculptor" and Walmart. Ready?



Okay, so we're not going to be buying a Judd original anytime soon... but what about making one inspired-by? We think it could be accomplished with simple woodworking tools and know-how. The beds are made of pine 2x lumber and create a freestanding sleeping niche. The design is simple and definitely inspiring to us. The double-sided version you see above was designed by Judd for his children and is held in The Arena at The Chinati Foundation in Marfa, Texas.

(Una maldad, por favor que nadie se entere. A los niños los acostaba en esas camas "nichos" y viendo la primera foto, salieron un "poco raritos", no?)

No hay como crecer en el monte y criarte con las cabras. Te sale un padre artista y la "jodiste"








b. 1928, Excelsior Springs, Mo.; d. 1994, New York City

Donald Judd was born June 3, 1928, in Excelsior Springs, Missouri. He registered at the Art Students League, New York, in 1948 but transferred a few months later to the College of William and Mary, Williamsburg, Virginia. In 1949, he moved back to New York to study philosophy at Columbia University while he took art classes at the Art Students League.

The Panoramas Gallery organized his first solo exhibition in 1957. The same year, Judd took art-history classes at Columbia University. He began to write articles for Art News in 1959 and the next year became a contributing editor for Arts Magazine until 1965, when he wrote reviews for Art International. In the early 1960s, he switched from painting to sculpture and started to develop an interest in architecture. Judd challenged the artistic convention of originality by using industrial processes and materials—such as steel, concrete, and plywood—to create large, hollow Minimalist sculptures, mostly in the form of boxes, which he arranged in repeated simple geometric forms.

His second solo show was held at the Green Gallery, New York, in 1963. From 1962 to 1964, he worked as an instructor at the Brooklyn Institute of Arts and Sciences. The Leo Castelli Gallery, New York, organized the first of a long series of individual exhibitions in 1966. This year, Judd was also hired as a visiting artist at Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, and the following year he taught sculpture at Yale University, New Haven. The Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, organized the first retrospective of his work in 1968. During this decade, the artist received many fellowships, among them a grant from the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation in 1968.

In 1971, he participated in the Guggenheim International Award exhibition at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, along with other Minimalist and Conceptual artists. Judd moved to Marfa, Texas, in 1972. He participated in his first Venice Biennale in 1980, and in Documenta, Kassel, in 1982. In 1984, he started designing furniture for the purpose of manufacturing. During the first half of the 1980s, Judd drew the plans for the Chinati Foundation, Marfa; the renovated compound of buildings opened in 1986 as a showcase for his sculptures, as well as for the work of other contemporary artists.

In 1987, Judd was honored by a large exhibition at the Stedelijk Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven; this show traveled to D�sseldorf, Paris, Barcelona, and Turin. The Whitney Museum of American Art organized a traveling retrospective of his work in 1988. In 1992, he was elected a member of the Royal Academy of Fine Arts, Stockholm, and received a prize from the Stankowski Foundation, Stuttgart, increasing the list of his numerous awards. During his lifetime, Judd published a large body of theoretical writings, in which he rigorously promoted the cause of Minimalist Art; these essays were consolidated in two volumes published in 1975 and 1987. The artist died February 12, 1994, in New York.

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In the late 50's through the mid-60's Donald Judd supported himself reviewing exhibits for Arts Magazine and Art International, and continued writing for these and other magazines into the 70's. All of his writings are collected in Donald Judd: Complete Writings 1959-1975, The Press of the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design, originally published in 1975; the edition I have is 2005. In those days a handful of reviewers covered the NY scene, covering it like a beat, and would write a dozen or more reviews each month. For example, in Arts in November 1960 wrote fourteen reviews-- six of those were in the 100-150 word range, five were in the 50-75 word range, and three were long single-sentence reviews.

Judd wrote in an Introduction in 1974 (italics mine):

"The job with Arts provided most of my money until the last year (1965). I wrote criticism as a mercenary and would never have written it otherwise. Since there were no set hours and since I could work at home it was a good part-time job. It took three or four days to see the shows, and perhaps a week or so off and on to write the reviews, which I always put off until the deadline. I can't type. Sigrid Byers, another and later assistant editor, sometimes helped with that. I don't remember the pay and the different reviewing schemes too well. I think I was paid 180 dollars a month for quite a while. The rent on my loft was 100 dollars. The few articles (that he wrote besides reviews) were a great help, especially in the summer (when there were fewer shows to review). In the letter hiring me (Hilton) Kramer gives the rate at the time: "For a review of 300 words the rate is six dollars; for 150 words, four dollars; for a one-sentence review, three dollars." The magazine was always poor; I felt that Kramer and (James) Mellow paid as well as they could. Obviously art critics should be paid much more. That's one of the things seriously wrong with the activity.

According to an editorial of Kramer's in September 1961 the reviews were to become selective. A list for September 1962 that I still have gives 48 shows assigned and seen. Sixteen were reviewed. Forty-eight seems high and may be because (Sydney) Tillim was not reviewing shows that month. Fifteen reviews a month seems to be the average. Evidently before September 1961 all shows were seen and reviewed. The 1962 list indicates that we still saw everything but chose the better ones to write about. I believe that later we didn't see everything.

When I started browsing through The Complete Writings I was struck by the quantity of reviews, and I was especially struck by the briefest reviews where Judd would describe some image, or color scheme, or textures used, and then make a decisive final pronouncement about what was good or bad about the work. He said if he liked something, didn't equivocate if he didn't, and he always had reasons why. Increasingly I found him to be a good and fair writer, concise and clear. He might come across as harsh because he actually makes up his mind and says so. One may not like his opinions, but if you read his writing you begin to know where he is coming from.

The last two chapters of Jed Perls' New Art City convincingly, for me, pairs the unlikely duo of Judd and Fairfield Porter. Both were artists who also wrote about art. They were independently minded, perhaps a little difficult, and looked for art that wasn't more of the same, that had a reason to be. While they might appear to be in opposite corners of the room they each held informed standards of quality in art and expressed surprising insights.

The last ten days I have posted some of Judd's shorter reviews; they are all gathered on a single page. Typically, these shorter reviews are also negative ones, as better art would justify a longer review, but they are quite lucid, saying much in a few words. I thought it would be interesting to pull a few of these out to see what kinds of things Judd would identify as general failings. I think what I gather most from the following excerpts is Judd asking, "What's the point, why bother?"

COMENTARIO
Check out my blog - www.nyccnc.com - i have made a few Judd replicas!

Per Kirkeby

The paintings of the Danish artist, Per Kirkeby come out of the tradition of American abstract expressionism. However, Kirkeby’s work is decidedly different in its lack of existential angst. Kirkeby’s paintings are earthy, earth-bound, and very much about the physical materials and processes of painting.


Nacido en 1938 en Copenhague, el pintor, escultor, artista gráfico, cineasta y poeta danés Per Kirkeby se licenció en 1967 en Historia Natural con un trabajo sobre geología ártica del cuaternario y participó en expediciones a Groenlandia y otros lugares. Ello no dejó ya nunca de influir en su obra plástica, que con frecuencia muestra vestigios de sus observaciones de la naturaleza y de los fenómenos geológicos. Su maestría en campos tan diversos como la pintura, la escultura, el dibujo, la obra gráfica, la performance, el cine y la escritura le proporcionan estancias de profesorado en la Kunstakademie Karlsruhe y en la Stdelschule de Frankfurt. Kirkeby ha sido reconocido con numerosos premios e incontables exposiciones en museos y certámenes como la Documenta de Kassel en 1982 y 1992, la Bienal de Venecia de 1993 y la Tate Gallery de Londres. En su trabajo destacan sus monolíticas esculturas de ladrillo para exteriores. Interesado en arquitectura, nacen proyectos escultóricos y arquitectónicos como la construcción de una casa de verano en la isla de Ls y The Stonehouse (La casa de piedra).

Vive y pinta en un taller de Copenhague, y tiene su casa en la isla Læsø situada entre Dinamarca y Suecia. Se le conoce especialmente en Alemania, Inglaterra y España, donde museos le consagraron retrospectivas y donde se reconoce como uno de los más importantes artistas europeos. Comienza la pintura a la edad de 14 años. Ligeramente disléctico, prefiere rápidamente expresarse por el dibujo. En 1971, fue Comisario nacional representando Dinamarca a la Bienal de París. Publicó poemas y novelas, y entró a l' Academia danesa en 1982. Es un admirador de le arquitectura de los Mayas, Cézanne, Manet

Knoebel, Imi

Knoebel, Imi
Dessau, 1940


Artista alemán. Durante sus estudios es asiduo a los cursos de Joseph Beuys en Dusseldorf, abordando sus obras, desde 1964, una abstracción radical basada en la utilización de verticales y horizontales negras sobre fondo blanco, dentro de la línea marcada por Kasimir Malevich; aunque su interés en las propuestas de la Bauhaus también es destacable. Ha experimentado con la construcción de objetos y environments, produce assemblages utilizando madera y desechos metálicos, así como acumulaciones de planchas de aislante. En ellos se intenta resaltar las tensiones provocadas en el espacio debido a la presencia de formas irregulares, aunque en ocasiones representa esquemáticamente un volumen irregular. Su trabajo, tanto en el caso de la pintura como en el de la escultura, ha tenido un carácter conceptual y ha empleado a lo largo de los años una variedad importante de materiales.0

Jannis Kounellis

NOTE: The starlings were acquired for this exhibition from a falconer in the New York area. ACE gallery and the artist are very sensitive to the well-being of these birds. At exhibition's end the starlings will be released to the custody of a licensed NYC-based wildlife rehabilitator for reintroduction to their natural habitat. Starlings are the most common species of bird found on the East Coast.




Each cage holds a live, wild starling. The metaphor continues to elaborate and illustrate itself, arriving at confinement of the natural in a post-industrial age.

Even if an individual manages a degree of psychological freedom, one still remains within the larger context of social organization. The global, post-colonial, post-revolutionary, fin-de-siecle Marketplace...



Fabric again, this time rolled in lead. Something personal packed down, packed and stuffed into a ladder-like form slightly angled off the horizontal. Six or more of these massive pieces of near-identical design encircle the room and finally disappear behind a louvered iron wall that is semi-transparent in effect. Variations in each piece are in the details: the condition of the lead, the individuality of the rolls. A certain inevitability seems to apply to the repetition, the movement and the disappearance...



An effort is being made. Scissors cut, they split the lead. If the lead once played the role of that which obscured the view, is it now that which resists?. Facing this work - but unseen in this photograph - is a similar piece in which shards of broken glass replace the scissors and jut menacingly out into the room. There's more to this than simple effort...



WHAT is kept in an armoire? Private things, one's clothing - cloth that touched the skin. Is this a metaphor of memory or the self, unreachable now, tied and suspended? A state of psychological closure, an inturning. And the window beyond: every pane save one is leaded over, blocked out. Perhaps that single open pane allows for the potential or possibility of release.



Ask WHAT? of these two elements: black coats hung on meathooks on I-beams mounted on blank paper; a row of tripod forms ending in a T. A line of questioning that repeats the simple query WHAT? reveals a compassionate narrative that in some respects seems contrary to the sheer weight and brawn of the materials the artist employs throughout this exhibition. The black coats and paper might suggest conformity and/or absence, nothing written nothing left; while the tripods stand like a line of anti-tank defense, an obstruction, or an expanded line-drawing that demands manuevering.

"Jannis Kounellis is one of the founding figures of the Arte Povera movement, which arose in Italy during the early 1960's. At that time, Italy was undergoing major political upheaval, transforming from a fundamentally agrarian society into an industrialized society. The Arte Povera artists regarded themselves as political artists who believed in playing a serious social role. These artists visualized the dialogue between nature and industry using industrial or "non-art" materials, holding a strong desire to disassociate their work from the restraints of more conventional art forms and art spaces, and also to play upon the political dimension of industrial materials. The Arte Povera movement created a strong and vital European voice in the international art scene, counterpointing the well-known Minimalist movement in America, which was also utilizing industrial materials. From the perspective of the Arte Povera artist, Minimalism concerned itself with aspects of form and was disinclined toward the poetic, political and historical concerns that were the creative foundation of the Arte Povera movement." - ACE gallery

Poetic, political and historical concerns translate into works that embody the urge toward metaphor. Throughout this show, it is in the contrast between message and materials that a satisfying tension is established and developed, adding depth to the formal beauty of the wood, iron, lead, fabric and paper and providing glimpes of content beyond structural beauty.

All the works in this exhibition are UNTITLED 1998. The artist and a crew of colleagues labored at the gallery for 45 days planning, building and installing the work. The pieces were built on-site but are not site-specific as such, meaning that while they fit the space that holds them like a hand in a glove, their exhibition will not be limited to this space or occasion.



Jannis Kounellis nació el 23 de marzo de 1936 en El Pireo, Grecia. Estudió en la Academia de Bellas Artes de Roma.

En 1963 empezó a utilizar objetos en sus pinturas, entre ellos animales vivos, fuego, tierra, tela de saco u oro. Cambió el marco de sus cuadros por marcos de camas, puertas, ventanas o utilizó las galerías de arte como marco para su obra. En 1967 Kounellis se unió al Arte Povera de Germano Celant. En 1969 expuso caballos de verdad en la galleria l’Attico, de Roma. Gradualmente, Kounellis introdujo nuevos materiales en sus instalaciones (humo, carbón, carne, etc.) y el entorno de la galería de arte fue reemplazado por lugares históricos (principalmente industriales).



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Jannis Kounellis (O Pireo, Grecia, 23 de marzo de 1936), é un artista grego de Arte povera.

Estudou na Academia de Belas Artes de Roma. En 1963 comezou a utilizar materiais orgánicos e inorgánicos nas súas obras, como animais vivos, lume, terra, tea de saco e ouro. Cambiou o marco dos cadros por marcos de camas, portas, fiestras e utilizou as galerías de arte como marco para a súa obra. En 1967 Kounellis uniuse á Arte povera de Germano Celant. En 1969 fixo unha exposición con cabalos auténticos na galería l’Attico de Roma. Gradualmente, Kounellis introduciu novos materiais nas súas instalacións (fume, carbón, carne, etc.) e substituíu o entorno da galería de arte por lugares históricos (principalmente industriais).





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CRITICA DE ANTON CASTRO


20070503100502-kounellis.jpg

LA MAREA DEL TIEMPO Y DEL MEDITERRÁNEO

Nacer en El Pireo (Grecia) debe marcar a cualquiera. Vivir ahí, con esa visión, bajo la luz esplendente de las tardes de leyenda, bien podría señalar un destino. Jannis Kounellis percibió allí la carga de la historia: Grecia y el Mediterráneo se asomaban a sus ojos como un arsenal del pasado, como el umbral decisivo hacia la utopía. Con la sombra de la arquitectura y la arqueología, con la música de un ayer que resonaba en cítaras y arpas de añoranza, debió aprender a mirar, a observar, a sentir. A inventarse una trayectoria en el arte, una trayectoria a contracorriente como un actor que se atreve a escenificar su mejor función en solitario. Con poco más de 20 años, decidió partir hacia Roma. Era otra ciudad cosida a la melodía del tiempo, al resplandor del pasado. Muy pronto frecuentaría a Alberto Burri y Lucio Fontana. Dicen los expertos que sus predilecciones iban hacia otros: Wols, un artista polifacético en permanente ensayo de su propio yo, Fautrier y Jackson Pollock, éste en particular porque le deslumbró tanto su obra como su personalidad. Aquellos años fueron muy importantes. Desde muy temprano Kounelis intentó consolidar su propia aventura de vivir y crear en libertad.

Esencialmente pintor, creía que la pintura era el trazo de la vida, el dibujo del existir mismo en un entorno, pronto consideró insuficiente sus soportes tradicionales: el lienzo, el papel, y empezó a construir toda suerte de escenografías de autor que cree en el valor de los signos, en la categoría metafórica de los símbolos, y decide escribir sus alfabetos, sus códigos privados, en hierro o mármol, en fuego, con carne de ternera degollada. Tenía claro que debía ser un artista de su tiempo, con pasado, con memoria fecundada por el quehacer de sus antepasados, y con presente que lo aglutina todo en sus trabajos: instalaciones, montajes, collages, esas funciones que podrían parecer casi una provocación al modo de su amado Antonin Artaud: las piras de gas, las velas encendidas, los animales vivos como los caballos (tan griegos, tan mediterráneos, tan vinculados con el movimiento), los fragmentos de carbón, los metales, el arrebato sombrío e incontenible de la tinta derramada. Toda una poética renovada de los objetos y de la materia en la que se dilucidaban muchas cosas: un arte de fusión, un arte de experimentación, un arte de expedición.

Jannis Kounelis fundía todas las disciplinas: la pintura (e incluimos aquí dibujo y grabado), la escultura, la música, la fotografía (que siempre le ha interesado mucho como espejo de realidad, como instrumento que fija el tiempo, como alucinación que petrifica la muerte y la vence) y, por supuesto, la poesía, que es algo inherente, algo interior y tempestuoso que preside su obra. Y así, reinventándose, volviéndose radical a cada hora o en cada nuevo proyecto, redactaba la novela del artista. En las páginas-piezas de ese libro hay un amasijo de asuntos y desvelos: una reflexión sobre lo primigenio o lo natural, y lo industrial o artificial, una soterrada e incesante melancolía, una preocupación permanente por la huella del tiempo en el artista más que por la huella del artista en el tiempo. Y hay esa pugna permanente con la creación misma en pos de una voz, de una proyección, de un discurso conceptual que se asienta en un ideal romántico como la libertad, en una certeza de índole revolucionaria como la hermosura y en una aspiración ambiciosa: establecer un nuevo orden de los elementos. Lo que no podemos olvidar es que el viaje es el otro gran asunto de Kounellis: el viaje en su sentido más alegórico, el viaje como certidumbre del peregrino, el viaje que supone toda creación, ése que es travesía de emoción, conocimiento y pensamiento que se expande.

Las exposiciones de Janis Kounellis tienen siempre algo de función exenta. Son como el manifiesto único de un radical laborioso. En esta muestra están sus cajas de metal, en cuyo interior hay hachas, cuchillos, tijeras, zapatos que se hunden en una superficie que parece alquitrán o un gran borrón de tinta negrísima, objetos más bien desapacibles. Y están sus dibujos con sus bosques de sombra. E incluso hay una pieza que parece el telón de un teatro o la cortina gélida de la morgue. Estas obras me han hecho pensar en aquellas urnas que contenían agua del mar; en algunas de ellas, se había sustituido el agua por la sangre. Jannis Kounellis es fuego y hielo y eco o residuo de una luz turbadora que nace más allá del corazón, allí donde restallan las mareas del tiempo, aquí donde se estremecen las sienes.

Sol LeWitt

Sol LeWitt ( 9 de septiembre de 1928, Hartford, Connecticut,-† 8 de abril de 2007, Nueva York). Artista ligado a varios movimientos incluyendo arte conceptual y minimalista. La pintura, el dibujo, la fotografía y las estructuras (término que él prefería al de escultura) son sus medios artísticos predominantes. Fue objeto de centenares de exposiciones individuales en museos y galerías por todo el mundo desde 1965.

Nace en una familia de inmigrantes judíos de Rusia. Después de recibir un BFA de la universidad de Syracuse en 1949, Sol LeWitt viajó a Europa donde recibe la influencia de los grandes maestros de la pintura. Después de eso, desempeñó servicios en la guerra coreana, primero en California, después en Japón, y finalmente Corea. Se mudó a Nueva York en los años 50 y prosiguió con su interés en el diseño gráfico trabajando en la Seventenn Magazine. Por ese tiempo, LeWitt también descubrió la fotografía de Eadweard Muybridge, cuyos estudios en el 1800s sobre la locomoción y las secuencias lo influenciaron. Estas experiencias, combinadas con un trabajo en 1960 en el museo del arte moderno de Nueva York, MoMA, influyeron en la obra de LeWitt como artista.

En el MoMA, los compañeros de trabajo de LeWitt incluyeron a artistas como Robert Ryman, Dan Flavin, y Robert Mangold. Dorothy C. Miller, presento en su famosa exhibición "Sixteen Americans". Trabajos por Jasper Johns, Robert Rauschenberg y Frank Stella generaron una emocionante discusión entre la comunidad de los artistas a quienes LeWitt se asoció.
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Se ha relacionado mucho a LeWitt con el minimalismo y se convertiría en uno de los pioneros del arte conceptual y uno de sus teóricos más destacados. Sus obras comprenden trabajos en dos y tres dimensiones, desde pinturas murales (más de 1200) a fotografías y centenares de dibujos y estructuras en forma de torres, pirámides, formas geométricas, y progresiones. De diferentes tamaños, desde maquetas a estructuras monumentales. Sol Lewitt utiliza frecuentemente estructuras abiertas y modulares originarias del cubo, una forma que lo influyó desde que se hizo artista. Sus esculturas incluyen las estructuras tempranas de la pared y tres proyectos seriales a partir de los años 60; cuatro cubos abiertos incompletos a partir de los años 70; numerosos pedazos de madera blancos pintados a partir de los años 80: El hexágono, forma derivada de un cubo, estructura con tres torres, entre otras así como maquetas para las estructuras de bloque concretas a partir de los últimos años 90.

El MoMA le dedicó su primera retrospectiva en el 1978-79. Ha expuesto además en los Paises Bajos, Reino Unido, Alemania, Suiza, Francia y España, entre otros países.