Sol LeWitt
- Sol LeWitt
Projecting form.
July 2003
Colored pencil
Courtesy of the Estate of Sol LeWitt
First Installation
PaceWildenstein, New York
First Drawn By
Anthony Sansotta, Jason Rulnick
MASS MoCA Building 7
Ground Floor
Closely related to Wall Drawing 1094, previously on display* at MASS MoCA on the third floor, Wall Drawing 1094A was first completed in the summer of 2003 at PaceWildenstein Gallery in New York. As in Wall Drawing 1094, this drawing has a central isometric rectangular form. The shape appears to recede upwards in an illusion of three-dimensionality, but is actually rendered in a non-perspectival manner.
The distinction between Wall Drawing 1094 and Wall Drawing 1094A is the type of line used to make the work. Whereas Wall Drawing 1094 is composed of scribbled lines, Wall Drawing 1094A is composed of straight lines. Four different colors of lines (gray, yellow, red, and blue) each going in the four basic directions, comprise the rendering technique for this work. This work harkens to earlier moments in Sol LeWitt’s practice wherein a commitment to a simplified technical process led to the employment and exploration of the most basic unit of drawing: the line. LeWitt used the line in four basic directions — vertical, horizontal, diagonal left, and diagonal right — experimenting with all potential combinations for the lines.
Wall Drawing 1094A is one of the first times the lines were layered to create an isometric form. The overlapping of the colored lines creates distinct areas of density and darkness. These discrete blocks then appear as separate but interlocking planes of the protruding central rectangle. The precision and almost mechanical ordering of the lines, without the reliance on illusionistic shading, create the appearance of a projecting form and demonstrate the range of possibilities allowed by straight lines.
*Wall Drawing 1094 was executed in a tight corner on the third floor of Building 7. According to John Hogan, LeWitt’s principal drafter in the 1980s, smudging on the wall drawing began to show up near the 5-1/2 to 6 foot height — the result of visitors accidentally touching the drawing with their heads while trying to take selfies. Due to the fragile nature of the scribbled colored pencil, Hogan and Mass MoCA staff voted to replace the drawing with Wall Drawing 1180 in 2010.