Wall Drawing 88

A 6-inch (15 cm) grid covering the wall. Within each square, not straight lines in either of four directions. Only one direction in each square but as many as desired, and at least one line in each square.

June 1971

Black pencil

Milwaukee Art Museum, Gift of Friends of Art, M2006.1

First Installation

The Milwaukee Art Center, Milwaukee

First Drawn By

William Torphy

MASS MoCA Building 7
Ground Floor

Dating from June 1971, Wall Drawing 88 is exemplary of Sol LeWitt’’s interest in indeterminacy. The piece embraces a dynamic relationship between the artist, the draftsman, and the work itself, in which the parameters of the work are predetermined by the artist, but certain fundamental elements – the direction, number, and form of the lines – are left to the draftsman’s interpretation. Thus, each execution of the drawing differs greatly, challenging the notion that there is one specific realization of an artwork. The boundaries of Wall Drawing 88 extend beyond this wall to the infinite set of hypothetical instances. The wall drawing was created during a period of broad experimentation for LeWitt.