Sol LeWitt

Sol LeWitt, born 1928 in Hartford, Connecticut, lives and works in New York and near Spoleto (Italy). LeWitt is considered one of the most influential practitioners of conceptual art, a form in which the essence of the work is the artists idea rather than the craftsmanship of execution. LeWitt sees the artist in a role analogous to that of the architect, who designs a building but does not build it. He developed his artistic vocabulary from basic geometric structures and their transformation by using a s is typical for the minimalist tendencies of his generation  these fundamental elements as regular repeated modular units or as series which explore a range of possibilities in a logical, preset sequence. LeWitt is fascinated by the multiplicity of things, especially the multiplicity of things that can be generated by a simple idea.
As one of the first truly contemporary artists, LeWitt did wall drawings beginning in 1968. Initially they were executed in pencil in his own hand, but soon they were replaced by written instructions and sketches meant to enable any competent draftsperson to execute a wall drawing. This concept confirmed LeWitt's notion of the artist as a thinker and originator of ideas rather than as a craftsperson. Due to the temporary nature of most LeWitt wall drawings the instructions given by the artist function somewhat as do musical scores, and the artist welcomes subsequent performances in other locations.