Release Date: May 18, 2004
CONCEPTUAL WORK OF ART IN PROGRESS
AT NATIONAL GALLERY OF ART
Assistant executing Sol LeWitt’s Wall Drawing #65.
Lines not short, not straight, crossing and touching, drawn at random using
four c olors, uniformly dispersed with maximum density, covering the entire
surface of the wall, a gift from Dorothy and Herbert Vogel, on a wall
in the National Gallery of Art’s concourse galleries.
© 2004 National Gallery of Art, Washington.
Washington, DC-- Four draftspeople are executing contemporary artist Sol LeWitt's Wall Drawing #65. Lines not short, not straight, crossing and touching, drawn at random, using four colors, uniformly dispersed with maximum density, covering the entire surface of the wall (first installation 1971), on an interior wall of the concourse level galleries of the East Building, National Gallery of Art. The drawing began on Monday, May 10, and will continue through Wednesday, May 19, 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. in full view of the public. The work was donated to the National Gallery of Art by well-known collectors Dorothy and Herbert Vogel in 2001.
Wall Drawing # 65 was first executed in 1971 at the Guggenheim Museum and on five additional occasions. The LeWitt drawings are installed at designated locations, for the length of time desired by the owners or those borrowing the work, and dated according to the first year of installation. They can be redrawn at other locations at a later date.
Wall Drawing # 65 is the fourth LeWitt wall drawing to be executed in Washington, D.C., in the past year. Wall Drawing #1113. On a wall, a triangle within a rectangle, each with broken bands of color (first installation 2003) and Wall Drawing #356 BB. Isometric figure within which are 3" (7.5 cm) wide black lines in three directions (first installation 2003) were executed at the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, and Wall Drawing # 1103. Color vertical and horizontal broken bands (first installation 2003) was executed at the Washington Convention Center.
According to the principle of his work, LeWitt's wall drawings are conceived by the artist but usually executed by others, not the artist himself. Hidemi Nomura, a trained LeWitt assistant, is supervising the execution of Wall Drawing # 65, a work he has not previously executed. The wall, measuring 27 x 16 feet, 2 inches, was prepared especially for Wall Drawing # 65 according to the artist's specifications.
SOL LEWITT
Sol LeWitt (b. 1928) is an originator of conceptual art, in which the work of art--typically an installation rather than an art object in the conventional sense--is either incarnated by language alone or produced according to the artist's written instructions. LeWitt developed the idea for the wall drawings in the late 1960s. Another LeWitt drawing, Wall Drawing # 681C, was executed at the National Gallery of Art in 1993 on an interior wall of the concourse level.
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