Sol LeWitt

Sol Lewitt earned a place in the history of art for his leading role in conceptual movement. Lewitt's work ranged from sculpture, painting and drawing to almost exclusively conceptual pieces that existed only as ideas or elements of the artistic process itself.

'Lewitt believed the idea itself could be the work of art, and maintained that, like an architect who creates a blueprint for a building and then turns the project over to a construction crew, an artist should be able to conceive of a work and then either delegate its actual production to others or perhaps even never make it at all.' - theartstory.org

'Key Ideas

• LeWitt's refined vocabulary of visual art consisted of lines, basic colors and simplified shapes. He applied them according to formulae of his own invention, which hinted at mathematical equations and architectural specifications, but were neither predictable nor necessarily logical. For LeWitt, the directions for producing a work of art became the work itself; a work was no longer required to have an actual material presence in order to be considered art.
• LeWitt's conceptual pieces often did take on at least basic material form, although not necessarily at his own hands. In the spirit of the medieval workshop in which the master conceives of a work and apprentices carry out his instructions based on preliminary drawings, LeWitt would provide an assistant or a group of assistants with directions for producing a work of art. Instructions for these works, whether large-scale wall drawings or outdoor sculptures, were deliberately vague so that the end result was not completely controlled by the artist that conceived the work. In this way, LeWitt challenged some very fundamental beliefs about art, including the authority of the artist in the production of a work. His emphasis is most often on process and materials (or the lack thereof in the case of the latter) rather than on imbuing a work with a specific message or narrative. Art, for LeWitt, could exist for its own sake. Meaning was not a requirement.
• Whereas many Minimalist artists turned to industrial materials, LeWitt simplified even further, still employing traditional materials - wood, canvas, paint, for instance - but focusing instead on concepts and systems. While the use of industrial materials implied a certain expectation of permanence with regard to a work of art, in direct contrast, LeWitt appreciated the ephemeral character and impermanence of Conceptual art. In short, he let the traditional materials speak for themselves, to demonstrate their own vulnerability to decay, destruction, or obsolescence.'

http://www.theartstory.org/artist-lewitt-sol.htm

Sol Lewitts work reminds me of when we did the mindmapping tasks within drawing week, which was something I quite enjoyed as the method caused me to be much more spontanious with the way i draw and direct the lines, there was no vision intented. It also makes me think about when we did the challenge to draw music - also within drawing week - as the results I created were very much about lines and there, directions, lengths and anlges. Therefore, this then leads me to think that in some ways Lewitts work is very much about the movement and directions of lines. For example, within the second video, we see a team of people he chose to re-create his drawings on a larger scale. The ways in wich they draw the lines is like quick little scribles, yet they are done in a contained way in order to keep the consistancy and shading Lewitt imaged. however, by using different people, they will then have there own individual way of drawing the line therefore adding that element of spontality that I spoke of early, whilst as a hole it all comes together perfectly.