SOL LEWITT OPERE

Solomon LeWitt, better known as Sol LeWitt, was born on September 9, 1928 in Hartford, Connecticut, to a family of Russian Jewish immigrants. From a young age, he showed an artistic talent that was encouraged by his mother, allowing him to attend classes at the Wadsworth Atheneum in Hartford. In 1949, he graduated in Fine Arts from Syracuse University and subsequently went to Europe to study the masterpieces of the great masters.
After military service in the Korean War, LeWitt moved to New York in 1953, settling on the Lower East Side. During this period, he studied at the School of Visual Arts and worked at the Seventeen magazine. In 1955, he worked as a graphic designer in the studio of the architect Ieoh Ming Pei, an experience that left a significant imprint on his artistic career. LeWitt is also influenced by the work of photographer Eadweard Muybridge, known for his studies of sequence and locomotion.
In 1960, he worked as a night receptionist at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York, where he came into contact with other emerging artists such as Robert Ryman, Dan Flavinand Robert Mangold, and with the art criticLucy Lippard. During this period, the influence of the exhibition "Sixteen Americans", curated by Dorothy Canning Miller, profoundly marked LeWitt. He becomes friends with Hanne Darboven, Eva Hesse and Robert Smithson, expanding his artistic network.
In the 1960s, LeWitt began teaching at New York University and the School of Visual Arts. His artistic production from this period is characterized by minimalism , particularly through the use of the cube as a basic geometric module. The cube , according to LeWitt, is " lacking aggressiveness, the basis for any more complex function ", and is used to develop infinite possibilities and combinations. In 1967, he participated in an exhibition at the Jewish Museum in New York and published the manifesto " Paragraphs on Conceptual Art " in which he declared that the artist's task is to formulate the idea, while the execution can be delegated to others. LeWitt states that " in conceptual art the idea or concept represents the most important aspect of the artwork ".
Starting from the Seventies, LeWitt began to create Wall Drawings, wall compositions based on geometric modules that adapt to the structure that hosts them. In the 1980s, he developed Modular Structures and Complex Forms, works that demonstrate the link between drawing and three-dimensional forms. LeWitt's works are exhibited in the most prestigious museums and exhibition spaces in the world, including the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Tate Gallery in London and the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam.
In 1970, LeWitt moved to Spoleto, Italy, where he established his studio in the historic center and lived on the slopes of Monteluco. He returned to the United States in the late 1980s and settled in Chester, Connecticut. In 2000, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art dedicated one of its most important retrospectives to him, a traveling exhibition which was subsequently hosted at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago and at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York.
LeWitt died on April 8, 2007 in New York, at the age of 78, due to cancer. His artistic legacy is vast and continues to influence generations of artists. Sol LeWitt is universally recognized as one of the founding fathers of Minimalist Art and Conceptual Art. He subverted artistic conventions, placing the idea at the center of the creative process and relegating execution to a secondary role, often delegated to others. His works, be they sculptures, gouaches or Wall Drawings, are defined as "structures" and demonstrate a constant relationship with the space that hosts them.
LeWitt redefined the concept of art, arguing that "the idea becomes a machine that produces art". His work is not theoretical, but intuitive, involving various mental processes without a defined purpose. LeWitt helped make art accessible and replicable, demonstrating that artistic value lies in the idea rather than its manual execution. His influence endures over time, cementing his role as an innovator and visionary in the contemporary artistic panorama.