Floor 5: Sol LeWitt Open Cube Interpretive Space: QR Code 515
This QR code provides access to 12 artworks in this gallery.
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Objects in This Gallery
12 objects in the order you'll encounter them from this entrance. Select an object to view details.
Wall Text
1979
Painted brass
The Doris and Donald Fisher Collection at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art
Acquired by the Fisher family, 1988
Wall Structure was the first piece LeWitt made using seriality—a logical, predetermined system of progression. Here, each square pushes out farther from, and is nested more tightly within, the one that contains it. He wrote of this pivotal work: “Wall Structure is important to me and crucial to my thinking. . . . It represents the change from art being an object-in-itself to a narrative piece. (From form to content.)” LeWitt considered serial art narrative because it invites the viewer to read each part sequentially, over time, in order to understand the underlying system.
Wall Text
January 1976
First drawn by: Diane Bertolo, Linda Brooks, Charles Clough, Alan Hayes, Gary Judkins, Pierce Kamke, Robert Longo, Kevin Noble, Joseph Panone, Robert Reslawsky, Cindy Sherman, and Michael Zwack
First installation: Hallwalls Contemporary Arts Center, Buffalo
Graphite, crayon, and acrylic paint on wall
The Doris and Donald Fisher Collection
Acquired by the Fisher family, 1990
Wall Text
1979
Painted brass
The Doris and Donald Fisher Collection at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art
Acquired by the Fisher family, 1988
Wall Structure was the first piece LeWitt made using seriality—a logical, predetermined system of progression. Here, each square pushes out farther from, and is nested more tightly within, the one that contains it. He wrote of this pivotal work: “Wall Structure is important to me and crucial to my thinking. . . . It represents the change from art being an object-in-itself to a narrative piece. (From form to content.)” LeWitt considered serial art narrative because it invites the viewer to read each part sequentially, over time, in order to understand the underlying system.
Wall Text
1998
Gelatin silver prints, ed. 2/9
The Doris and Donald Fisher Collection at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art
Acquired by the Fisher family, 1998
Wall Text
January 2002
First drawn by: Sachiko Cho and Irene Stevens
First Installation: Gap Inc. headquarters, San Francisco
Colored pencil on wall
The Doris and Donald Fisher Collection at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art
Acquired by the Fisher family, 2001
Wall Text
October 1968
First drawn by: Sol LeWitt
First installation: Paula Cooper Gallery, New York
Graphite on wall
The Doris and Donald Fisher Collection at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art
Acquired by the Fisher family, 1992
Wall Text
1996
Paint and wood
The Doris and Donald Fisher Collection at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art
Acquired by the Fisher family, 1996
Wall Text
March 1986
First drawn by: David Higginbotham and Tony Tasset
First installation: Refco Inc., Chicago
Ink wash
The Doris and Donald Fisher Collection at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art
Acquired by the Fisher family, 1992
During the 1980s, LeWitt began to create wall drawings that feature pyramids and other geometric figures built up from layers of colored ink washes. With its rich matte surfaces and flattened volumes, Wall Drawing #477 reflects the influence of the early Renaissance fresco paintings that surrounded him following his move to Spoleto, Italy, in 1980. LeWitt stayed true to his rule-based system, however: The subtle hues are achieved by superimposing layers of primary colors (yellow, red, blue) and gray in different combinations, as the artist diagrammed in the nearby watercolor.
Wall Text
August 2007
First drawn by: Chip Allen, Takeshi Arita, Andrew Colbert, Sarah Heinemann, John Hogan, Gabriel Hurier, Sara Krugman, Roland Lusk, Anthony Sansotta, and Michael Benjamin Vedder
First installation: Pace Wildenstein, New York
Graphite on wall
The Doris and Donald Fisher Collection at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art
Acquired by the Fisher family, 2008
From a distance, this cropped “X” form pops out from the wall; closer up, you can see the underlying texture of irregular scribbling that builds the illusion. Here and in LeWitt’s other Scribbles wall drawings, subtle shadings in tone are achieved by varying the hardness and thickness of the graphite and the amount of time spent on each section. The artist’s diagram for this work maps twelve bands ranging from dark to light and back again. This was among the last wall drawings that LeWitt created before his death in 2007.
Wall Text
1998
Paint and wood
The Doris and Donald Fisher Collection at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art
Acquired by the Fisher family, 1999
Unlike the nearby objects, this is not a stand-alone artwork but a scale study for a roughly sixteen-foot-tall stepped pyramid composed of uniform concrete blocks, which has been installed in the sculpture garden of the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC, since 1999. LeWitt began creating large outdoor structures from concrete blocks in the mid-1980s. The material appealed to him as common, widely available, and not usually associated with art. It also provided a simple, ready-made module that could be repeated to create various geometric forms.
Wall Text
1985–86
Paint and wood
The Doris and Donald Fisher Collection at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art
Acquired by the Fisher family, 1988
Wall Text
1986
Paint and wood
The Doris and Donald Fisher Collection at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art
Acquired by the Fisher family, 1987