Sol LeWitt was an artist who worked in many mediums. and was known for his association with the conceptual art and minimalism movements. As you know if you have been reading my posts here, I am interested in generative art. While Sol LeWitt was not a digital artist, he did do some interesting work in algorithmic art: his Wall Drawings .
LeWitt believed that the idea behind a work of art, rather than the act of producing it, was the actual art work. He rejected the idea that who did the actual work was of primary importance. So he produced instructions (algorithms) for various pieces of art and had others draw them. Some, like Wall Drawing 46 , were very vague:
Vertical lines, not straight, not touching, covering the wall evenly.
Others, like Wall Drawing 340 , were very specific:
Six-part drawing. The wall is divided horizontally and vertically into six equal parts.
1st part: On red, blue horizontal parallel lines, and in the center, a circle within which are yellow vertical parallel lines;
2nd part: On yellow, red horizontal parallel lines, and in the center, a square within which are blue vertical parallel lines;
3rd part: On blue, yellow horizontal parallel lines, and in the center, a triangle within which are red vertical parallel lines;
4th part: On red, yellow horizontal parallel lines, and in the center, a rectangle within which are blue vertical parallel lines;
5th part: On yellow, blue horizontal parallel lines, and in the center, a trapezoid within which are red vertical parallel lines;
6th part: On blue, red horizontal parallel lines, and in the center, a parallelogram within which are yellow vertical parallel lines.
The horizontal lines do not enter the figures.
Different people with their own biases and with varying levels of experience in drawing will come up with very different results. Or as LeWitt put it: “Each person draws a line differently and each person understands words differently.”
LeWitt passed away in 2007, but people are still recreating his wall art! The image at the top of this page is a quick Nannou sketch as my implementation of LeWitt’s Wall Drawing 160 :
A black outlined square with a red diagonal line centered on the axis between the upper left and lower right corners and another red diagonal line centered on the axis between the lower left and upper right corners.