Sol Lewitt, Lines in Four Directions,1985, Painted extruded aluminum, H 90 ft. x W 72 ft. Design concept donated by the artist, sponsored by Art in Public Places, Inc., City of Chicago, funded by The National Endowment for the Arts and private contributions.

The title of the talk was “Every Wall is A Door,” a quote of Sol Lewitt’s (September 9, 1928 - April 8, 2007). He is best known for his wall drawings of which he made 1200 over his entire career. His first, exhibited at the Paula Cooper Gallery in 1968 was done in graphite. The work was made up of straight lines drawn in four different directions. What Mont Sainte- Victoire was to Cezanne, “Lines in Four Directions” was to Lewitt. It was often referred to as his “coat of arms.” He even used this when he signed his name sometimes.

His work is conceptual and anyone can do it (well, not just anyone but that was the idea) as per his instructions. He wanted to make art that wasn’t about the hand of the artist–the line he draws is the same as one you or I would draw. Another famous quote of his in reference to his work is “the idea becomes a machine that makes art.” He always had a preset plan so that no subjectivity would be involved. His titles doubled as instructions for the works. Every group who creates the work will do it differently. Lewitt knew his work would last well after he was gone. Like a composer he creates the score. Just because he doesn’t do it doesn’t mean it is not his work. His works marry the intellectual with the beautiful.

Sol Lewitt, Wall Drawing #273: Lines to points on a grid, 1975, on view at Dia: Beacon

One of his great influences was Jasper Johns. Lewitt was a night receptionist at MoMA in the 1960s and Johns had exhibits there at that time. Lewitt like the flatness of Johns’s works and his move away from traditional illusionism. Lewitt took that notion one step further and removed the object entirely by drawing directly on the wall. Eadward Muybridge was another influence on Lewitt as he was drawn to seriality and repeated units. And lastly, perhaps the most sentimental of his influences, Eva Hesse. They met in 1960 and Lewitt was ten years older than Hesse. Both were unknown artists at the time. They were neighbors and part of a group of artists and friends who hung out. Others in the group were Robert Ryman, Robert Mangold, Dan Flavin, and Lucy Lippard. Hesse left for Germany for 15 months and Lewitt and Hesse corresponded regularly via letters. There can be connections made between their works of the late 1960s. Hesse used a grid, repetition and simplified forms in her work. In 1970, two days after her death (of cancer), Lewitt created his first work with “non-straight” lines as a tribute to Hesse.

Sol Lewitt, Wall Drawing 95 On a wall divided vertically into fifteen equal parts, vertical lines, not straight, using four colors in all one-, two-, three-, and four-part combinations. July 1971, on view Mass MoCA

The work was never sold, but appeared in all of his important shows. From that point on, he used non-straight lines as part of his lexicon.

Sol Lewitt, Wall Drawings #935, 1999, Courtesy SF MoMA

In 1969 he introduced color into his work; he used the three primary colors and black in his “coat of arms” and then added to make secondary and tertiary colors. In the 1980s his work changed again. He moved to Italy, got married, and these events opened up his work. He used colorful ink washes and not just lines but stars and geometric forms. His works are permanent until they are destroyed. As an artist he constantly reinvented himself. 105 of his wall drawings will be on view at Mass Moca for the next 25 years in a retrospective. You have plenty of time to plan a trip to see them.

The idea of every wall being a door is that for Lewitt, one work led to the next. It also went against the Renaissance idea of painting as a “window onto the world” with the invention of perspective. Lewitt didn’t see painting as a window onto the world but he offered his viewers a door into a world of ideas.