Sol LeWitt, 1928 – 2007

Wall Drawing #111

1971
A wall divided vertically into five equal parts, with ten thousand lines in each part: 1st) 6" (15cm) long; 2nd) 12" (30 cm) long; 3rd) 18" (45cm) long; 4th) 24" (60 cm) long; 5th) 30" (75cm) long. Pencil.

First Installation: John Weber Gallery, New York, New York
First Drawn by: R. Cutrone, P. Graf, S. Kato, J. Marasco, J. Nyeboe, M. Stamos, B. Walker, R. Watanabe, M. Wheeler
Glenstone

Neither lines nor words are ideas, they are the means by which ideas are conveyed.   Sol LeWitt

Wall Drawing #111 is the materialization of an idea. Divided into five equal sections, each section of the wall is filled with 10,000 straight lines hand-drawn in pencil directly on the wall using a ruler. The length of the lines progressively increases, which makes each section denser than the last. These strict parameters require labor-intensive execution, and yet the result is a meditative, contemplative work.

A pioneer among the Minimalists and Conceptual artists, Sol LeWitt and his wall drawings changed our ideas about what art is, how it is made and who creates it. Every drawing is based on verbal or written instructions; no decisions are made in the process. His role can be likened to that of a composer, the person from his studio acts as the conductor and the artists executing the work make up the orchestra.

Bronwyn Griffith, Curator of Collection Research/Senior Registrar, September 2012