Sol Lewitt biography

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 artistic talent encouraged by his mother, allowing him to attend a course at the Wadsworth Atheneum in Hartford. In 1949, he graduated with a Fine Arts degree from Syracuse University and later 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 in the Lower East Side. During this period, he studied at the School of Visual Arts and worked at the magazine Seventeen. In 1955, he worked as a graphic designer in the studio of architect Ieoh Ming Pei, an experience that left a significant mark on his artistic career. LeWitt was also influenced by the work of photographer Eadweard Muybridge, known for his studies on 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 Flavin and Robert Mangold, and with art critic Lucy Lippard. During this period, the influence of the exhibition "Sixteen Americans", curated by Dorothy Canning Miller, deeply marked LeWitt. He became friends with Hanne Darboven, Eva Hesse and Robert Smithson, expanding his artistic network.
In the Sixties, LeWitt began teaching at New York University and the School of Visual Arts. His artistic production of 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 aggression, a base for every 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 execution can be delegated to others. LeWitt states that "in conceptual art the idea or concept represents the most important aspect of the artwork".
From the Seventies onwards, LeWitt began creating Wall Drawings, mural compositions based on geometric modules that adapt to the structure hosting them. In the Eighties, he developed Modular Structures and Complex Forms, artworks that demonstrate the link between drawing and three-dimensional forms. LeWitt's artworks are exhibited in the most prestigious museums and exhibition spaces worldwide, 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 Eighties and settled in Chester, Connecticut. In 2000, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art dedicated one of the most important retrospectives to him, a traveling exhibition later hosted at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago and 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 delegable to others. His artworks, whether sculptures, gouaches, or Wall Drawings, are called "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 the artwork". 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 in its manual execution. His influence endures over time, cementing his role as an innovator and visionary in the contemporary art scene.