In year 10 of our 25-year exhibition, Sol LeWitt: A Wall Drawing Retrospective, “the most perfect union of contemporary art and architecture in the United States,” (Los Angeles Times) we celebrated with a series of artist talks, stories, and scholarly discussion, with a full day of activities punctuated by performances from artists whose work has been influenced by LeWitt.

11:00am: Symposium
In The Machine that Makes the Art? Interpretation, Collaboration, and Sol LeWitt’s Wall Drawings, explored the evolution from LeWitt’s argument in “Paragraphs on Conceptual Art“ that “the execution is a perfunctory affair,” to his belief articulated in “Doing Wall Drawings“ that the drafter of a wall drawing is a “collaborator,” while diving into a few overarching questions: What is the role of the drafter in interpreting the wall drawings? Of the viewer? And what is the legacy of LeWitt’s evolving ideas about the role of collaboration and interpretation? Lindsay Aveilhe, Susan Cross, Charles W. Haxthausen, Anna Lovatt, Veronica Roberts, and Christopher Vacchio will present, followed by a conversation. RSVP to 413.664.4481 x1 or boxoffice@massmoca.org.

1:30pm: Pop-up stories and Performances in the galleries
Artists Jason Moran, Spencer Finch, Karl Larson, Jeffrey Gibson, Sameer Gupta, Abhik Mukherjee, Barbara Takenaga, Tigue, Joe Wardwell, and LeWitt master draftsman John Hogan popped up, shared stories, and presented work inspired by the father of conceptualism.

1:30pm – Karl Larson
1:50pm- John Hogan
2:20pm – Jason Moran
3:20pm – Spencer Finch and Barbara Takenaga
3:35pm – Tigue
4pm – Joe Wardwell and Jeffrey Gibson
4:15pm – Sameer Gupta

5:45pm: Dinner and performances
The day was capped with a celebration dinner and performances by Quindar (with Wilco’s Mikael Jorgensen), and jazz impresario and MacArthur “Genius,” Jason Moran. Tickets can be purchased here.

All Day: Family events
A Sol LeWitt treasure hunt and LeWitt-inspired art-making at the Art Bar.

This program was supported by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and sponsored in part by Berkshire Magazine.

Sol LeWitt, Wall Drawing #1247, August 2007