Sol LeWitt
Wall
28 February 2004 - 02 May 2004
Kunsthaus Graz
Lendkai 1, A-8020 Graz
T +43 316/8017-9200
www.kunsthausgraz.at
Following on from the opening exhibition about perception in art, the Kunsthaus Graz shows two solitary positions of artistic examination that address the subject of space. In Space 02, Vera Lutter works with large surface photographs that portray various spaces using the pinhole camera technique. On the upper floor of Space 01 a completely different kind of spatial construction awaits the visitor: from more than 140 tons of lightweight concrete block, Sol LeWitt has created a vivid combination of reactive installation and autonomous sculpture.
Sol LeWitt is an icon of contemporary art. In the sixties, with his spatial structures he contributed to sculpture in a way that changed the understanding of artistic work, and thus became one of the founders of both Minimal and Concept Art. The reduction of forms and contents of his work, as well as the principal critique of its material character and the process of creation, are in the tradition of constructivism of the 20th century. With impressive consistency he developed abstract sculpture into minimalist concepts. Like no other artist of his generation, he thus gave an important impetus for the idea of the work of art as a concept. In this way the classical concept of authorship was finally revoked, thereby opening up a new field of possibilities for artistic interventions and manifestations. For Sol LeWitt, minimalism and concept do not mean a reduction of possibilities, but an endless variation of forms and images in the true sense of the word.
For the Kunsthaus he places himself at the beginning of a discourse with space and its perception. In abstraction according to Mondrian, aspects of the construction of images and illusion are addressed whilst, in minimalism, abstraction is concrete materialism. The object is perceived 1:1 in its physical existence, any significance is denied and tautology made the principle. In this clearly defined space, the beholder becomes the active subject, and it is this very space that becomes the metric for maneuver.
Here is where our interest in Sol LeWitt’s work sets in. The large-format stone sculpture, the artist’s designs for Space 01 in the Kunsthaus, surveys the room and subjects it to a perceptive experiment. The visitor experiences the massive wall as both built architecture, demarcation between inside and outside, and as minimalist sculpture and tactile object.
For Sol LeWitt the word perception has the meaning of “the apprehension of the sense data, the objective understanding of the idea and simultaneously a subjective interpretation of both.”
Curators
Peter Pakesch, Katrin Bucher
Alvin Lucier: Concert
In the context of the exhibition, there will be a concert in the spatial sculpture with the internationally renowned composer, musician and sound artist for New Music, Alvin Lucier. Alvin Lucier will compose a work especially for Sol LeWitt’s sculptural work that surveys the newly created space by means of sound.
Exhibition catalogue
The exhibition is accompanied by a catalogue with illustrations of the sculpture in the space and texts by Peter Pakesch (Director of the Landesmuseum Joanneum, Graz), Martin Prinzhorn (Professor of linguistics, University of Vienna), Marco De Michelis (Professor of architecture, University of Venice) and Paul Horwich (Professor of philosophy of science, Cornell University, New York)
Published by Walther Konig, Koln.