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For the first time in Belgium, M has gathered twenty-four color wall drawings by the American conceptual artist Sol LeWitt (1928-2007). Based on his detailed instructions or plans, the works are executed directly on the walls of the exhibition space. The monumental drawings, while reminiscent of the Italian Renaissance fresco tradition, mark a ground-breaking departure in the history of modern art. For LeWitt, the idea or concept underlying an artwork is primary, its execution secondary.

The wall drawings are exTremely fragile. please do noT Touch.

Sol leWitt. ColorS iNStrUCtioNS

LeWitt’s wall drawings are based on written instructions, or plans for the drafters to follow faithfully. Since his very first wall drawings in the late 1960s, LeWitt has collaborated with artists, gallery owners, curators or local assistants for the making of his work. The artist often compared his role with that of an architect or a composer who writes a score or draws a plan, but both rely on the skills, dedication and input of others for the execution. Thus, a LeWitt wall drawing looks different each time it is executed, depending on the size and configuration of the wall but also the interpretation of the drafters.

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MUSEUM ROOF

Chosen from the ca. 1200 wall drawings created by the artist between 1968 and 2007, the works in the exhibition at M offer a selective overview of LeWitt’s radical practice. The works presented here, exclusively in color, have been selected in close collaboration with the LeWitt Collection, Chester, Connecticut, ensuring that each piece perfectly embraces the museum’s architecture. The works selected, dating from 1969 to 2003 are ordered chronologically, from the earliest drawings made up of thousands of fine pencil lines, or bolder lines and simple geometric shapes in crayon, to more complex shapes in India ink washes, and

finally exuberant systems in acrylic paint. With a distribution of the wall drawings in four consecutive rooms, each corresponding to a medium used by the artist, the exhibition provides an articulated overview of the evolution of LeWitt’s practice. A fifth gallery (room 27 on the top floor) concludes with two works mainly in black and white, hinting at both the diversity and consistency of LeWitt’s body of work. Furthermore, they link Sol LeWitt. Colors at M to its partner exhibition, Sol LeWitt. Wall Drawings from 1968 to 2007, at Centre Pompidou-Metz, featuring over thirty of LeWitt’s wall drawings in black and white.

exhibitioN at M

Start your tour with the wall drawings in rooms 23 to 27. Then watch the documentary and look at the artist’s books in rooms 21a and 21b.

Sol leWitt, “DoiNG Wall DraWiNGS” (1971)

The artist conceives and plans the wall drawing. It is realized by the draftsmen. (The artist can act as his own draftsmen.) The plan, written, spoken or a drawing, is interpreted by the draftsmen.

There are decisions which the draftsman makes, within the plan, as part of the plan. Each individual, being unique, given the same instructions would carry them out differently. He would understand them differently.

The artist must allow various interpretations of his plan. The draftsman perceives the artist’s plan, than reorders it to his own experience and understanding.

The draftsman’s contributions are unforeseen by the artist, even if he, the artist, is the draftsman. Even if the same draftsman followed the same plan twice, there would be two different works of art. No one can do the same thing twice.

The artist and the draftsman become collaborators in making the art.

Each person draws a line differently and each person understand words differently.

Neither lines nor words are ideas. They are means by which ideas are conveyed. The wall drawing is the artist’s art, as long as the plan is not violated. If it is, then the draftsman becomes the artist and the drawing would be his work of art, but that art is a parody of the original concept.

The draftsman may make errors in following the plan without compromising the plan. All wall drawings contain errors. They are part of the work.

The plan exists as an idea but needs to be put into its optimum form.

Ideas of wall drawings alone are contradictions of the idea of wall drawings.

First published in Art Now: New York, vol. 3, no. 2, New York, June 1971.© LeWitt Collection, Chester, Connecticut

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The exhibition starts with Wall Drawing #65 (1971). The drawing consists of a closely-knit web of pencil lines in the four primary colors adopted by LeWitt right from the start: black, yellow, red and blue. While covering the entire surface of the wall evenly, their random superposition creates subtle patches of secondary colors. The artist revisited this peculiar technique in the last two years of his life, with his Scribble Drawings this time in graphite. As with most wall drawings this one looks slightly varies each time it is realized. On the one hand, its size is adjusted to the wall it is to be drawn on. On the other hand, the web of random colored lines will always look slightly different, depending on the drafters who execute it.

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This room features seven of the artist’s earliest wall drawings in pencil. They illustrate the artist’s systematic working methods using the straight line as its formal basis. Initially, the line appears in four absolute directions: vertical, horizontal, 45° diagonally from left to right and 45° diagonally from right to left. LeWitt combines each of the lines with a primary color: black, yellow, red or blue. The works in this room are simple combinations of lines (straight, not straight, long, short, within squares, bands, or on the entire surface of the allotted wall) and create subtly vibrating fields. These early works explore strictly planned variations and combinations of lines and color.

In Wall Drawing #29 (1969) the artist couples each line direction with a color, each filling a quarter of the square. Wall Drawing #87 (1971) superimposes in a simple progression the four different line directions and colors while Wall Drawing #85 (1971) emphasizes in a systematic way all the different combinations of colors and line directions possible. LeWitt’s elementary additive process resembles

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the traditional printing technique and its four-color process where the black, yellow, red or blue inks are printed on top of one another in order to create secondary colors. Wall Drawing #31 (1970), the smaller square on the short wall, shows 500 lines in each of the four directions and colors on top of one another within a specific square.

In 1970, LeWitt introduced the not straight line into his work. For Wall Drawing #95 (1971) the wall is divided up into fifteen equal parts and, running from left to right, exploring the primary colors and their different combinations. Working with irregular lines increases the input of the drafter. By employing a divisionist technique, the work displays LeWitt’s knowledge of classical color theories. Instead of drawing pencil lines on top of one another, the lines in the four primary colors are now drawn alongside one another; at a distance though, they appear to mix into secondary colors as perceived by the viewer’s retina. A band offering a combination of black pencil, yellow and red is thus experienced as orange.

Wall Drawing #48 (1970) shows how the drafter’s interpretation can lead to different visual results while the conceptual content remains exactly the same. As its title reads, Wall Drawing #48 proposes the following apparatus: “Within four adjacent squares, each 48 x 48 inches (120 cm), four drafters are employed at four dollars per hour for four hours a day and for four days to draw straight lines four inches (10 cm) long randomly, using four different colored pencils. Each drafter uses the same color throughout the four-day period, working on a different square each day.” While the instructions are carefully and consistently followed, the disposition of the lines within the squares and in relationship with one another varies necessarily from one presentation to the next.

In the early 1970s Sol LeWitt introduced crayon as a medium. Unlike pencils, he used these to draw thicker lines that can be clearly seen from a greater distance. At this point, he also introduced colored backgrounds, either in black or one of the primary colors.

Each of Wall Drawings #154, #157, #159, #160, #162 and #164 (1973) consists of a black square containing one or two red lines traced in crayon positioned in the four basic directions. While the configuration of the different elements is here fully determined by the artist, Wall Drawing #244 (1975) shows how LeWitt sometimes offers his drafters to create their own instructions: if the black circle in this Location Drawing is necessarily centred on the allotted wall, the position and dimension of the red line are determined by those who execute it. A text written along the red line explaining how the location was determined allows the viewer to understand the particular system at play.

Wall Drawing #299 (1976) explores on colored walls the different positions of straight lines in crayon originating

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from the regular reference points adopted by the artist. While the three main colors of the background split the wall area evenly, each presents an equal number of white lines departing either from the corners, the centre or the midpoint of the sides. The lines end at randomly selected points but always on intersections of the pencil grid that covers each of the three color panels. The length and number of each line are determined by the drafters.The title of Wall Drawing #299 hence reads: “The wall is divided into three equal parts, each with a different color. A 6-inch (15,2 cm) grid covering the wall. First part: On red, white lines from the midpoints of each side to points on the grid. Second part: On yellow, white lines from the center to points on the grid. Third part: On blue, white lines from the corners to points on the grid. Each part has an equal number of lines. (The number and their length are determined by the drafter.)”

In the 1970s, LeWitt introduced simple geometric shapes into his wall drawings. Alongside the three primary figures – the square, the circle, and the triangle – he adopted secondary figures: the rectangle, the trapezoid and the parallelogram. These shapes,

all based upon the square, regularly reappear in various works. In Wall Drawing #320 (1979), on the freestanding wall, a square – the essential figure of LeWitt’s systematic vocabulary – frames a circle and triangle, each shape executed in a different color.

In Wall Drawing #340 (1980) all six simple figures are arranged in two rows, with the primary figures at the top, the secondary at the bottom, all drawn with lines in two directions and two colors within rectangles as the rectangular wall at M is divided in six equal parts, in accordance with the artist’s instructions.

The back wall shows Wall Drawing #395 (1983). The mapped-out grid consisting of 648 squares acts as an anchor for the drafter. The drawing is constructed using straight, not straight and broken lines in all four directions, in the four primary colors, each direction corresponding to a color. Each square in the grid contains one type of line in combination with a specific color. There are black vertical lines, yellow horizontal lines, red diagonal lines (from right to left) and blue diagonal lines (from left to right).

By the 1980s, LeWitt’s visual vocabulary had evolved into more complex forms and colors, adopting new materials and application techniques, including India ink washes. Never mixed beforehand, the primary colors (where G is Gray, R is Red, Y is Yellow, and B is Blue) are applied on the wall in series of transparent layers creating complex hues and tonalities. This very labor intensive technique results in subtle colors that appear to have penetrated the wall, immediately inviting comparisons with the Italian Renaissance frescos that were painted on the walls of churches and chapels.

This room shows two wall drawings, each of which take up two whole walls. Wall Drawing #449 (1985) resembles a landscape constructed

of pyramids. It is based on a series of assembled triangles that appear to be unfolding and permuting. In order to achieve the various color nuances, LeWitt gave clear instructions as to how many coats of which color need to be applied on top of one another and in what specific order. Thus for instance, RYYR combines 12 coats overall of red and yellow, as each letter equals three coats, resulting in an orange shade. In Wall Drawing #561 (detail) (1988) a number of “continuous forms” seemingly deriving from the square are combined and spread over two corner walls. When seen as a whole, the work resembles a mosaic made out of diamond shapes. Realized on site and adjusted to the characteristics of the allotted walls, LeWitt’s wall drawings become one with the space they inhabit: here, where the wall is interrupted by a doorway or a window, the wall drawing is also interrupted, as the parts of the work corresponding to the negative space generated by these architectural “accidents” disappear. It is then up to the viewer to imagine the missing fragments, hence invited to take an active part in the perception of the wall drawing.

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In this high and monumental room a single work is displayed, Wall Drawing #867 (1998). After working with India ink, in the 1990s LeWitt also started using acrylic paint in saturated colors. His primary color palette remains the same, but is expanded to include secondary colors: alongside red, yellow and blue, orange, green and purple also appear. In this work, three walls are “divided vertically into six equal parts, yellow; purple; blue; orange; red; and green. The wall is divided horizontally in two parts by a wavy line. The top is flat; the bottom is glossy” as its title indicates. LeWitt’s intention here is to make use of the properties of the paint and make its texture an integral part of the work. In this way he is able to experiment with such contrasts as matt as opposed to glossy, sinking into the space or standing out from the wall, allowing the reflection of both the viewer and the surrounding space.

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Ever since his earliest wall drawings, LeWitt experimented with straight lines in the four directions, returning regularly to what he came to call his “coat of arms” as in Wall Drawing #391 (1983), a diptych where one square is black and white, the other in color (the four primary colors). The same principle showed in the earliest wall drawing in room 23 is hence repeated, here using India ink. Throughout his oeuvre, LeWitt frequently worked in this way, further exploring similar “thought processes” with different means, such as color or medium, to multiply the factors of variations and combinations.

In the context of the artist’s practice, Wall Drawing #356BB (2003) is a rather paradoxical drawing. When he first started to create wall drawings, LeWitt was striving towards flatness in his work: he chose to draw lines directly on the wall avoiding the intermediary object of the canvas. But in the 1980s LeWitt introduced the illusion of volume or three-dimensionality, with series of cubes and forms derived from cubes (including pyramids) – using however an isometric projection, the flattest way to create a feeling of depth, as opposed to the more conventional linear perspective, based on the point of view of a perceiving subject. Depending on how you look at it, the small cube either appears to be standing on top of the large one, or seems to be missing, as the title of the work confirms. The same shape, Cube without a Cube, this time scribbled in graphite, can be seen at Centre Pompidou-Metz in its retrospective of wall drawings in black and white.

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artiSt’S bookS

An important part of Sol LeWitt’s work resides in his artist’s books. He made seventy-seven stand-alone publications, as well as numerous contributions to magazines and catalogues. He considered the book to be a medium of equal importance to any other, approaching the space of the book similarly to the way he treated the space of the wall. LeWitt particularly appreciated the sequential and intimate character of the book (which he differentiated from the overall, public perception of the wall). Many artist’s books were published on the occasion of exhibitions instead of catalogues, reshaping to the book format the systems exhibited on the walls. Hence, artist’s books share

strong similarities with the rest of LeWitt’s practice, the artist often exploring similar or identical ideas with different means.He saw the book as an alternative but equally worthy medium in which to make the basic principles of his work accessible to a broad public.It was with this in mind that in 1976 LeWitt set up Printed Matter, a publisher, distributor and store of artist’s publications, stil active in present-day New York.

The books exhibited here provide an overview of LeWitt’s book works. A great many artist’s books have been gathered from various collections in Belgium and abroad specially for this exhibition.

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DoCUMeNtary filM: ‘the MakiNG of’

France-based director Patric Chiha documented the execution of the wall drawings. His film is projected continuously during the entire duration of the exhibition in a dedicated screening room.

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CreatiNG the exhibitioN

Before the making of the drawings could start, the walls on which the works would eventually be executed had to be prepared following strict guidelines. Several layers of primer and paint had to be applied in specific manners before the drawing could start. The final preparatory layer on each wall varies according to the material of the wall drawing. The walls where pencil and crayon are to be used are given a rougher texture to aid adhesion; the walls that are to be realized in acrylic paint need to be extremely smooth.

It took a total of seven weeks to draw the works, with over seventy drafters working six days a week. Professional drafters trained by the LeWitt studio, most of whom worked alongside the artist, coordinated the process. In M, they were assisted throughout this period by a group of ten young artists and sixty-one assistants and students from seven Belgian art schools: Hogeschool Sint-Lukas Brussels, La Cambre / Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Arts Visuels Brussels, Koninklijke Academie voor Schone Kunst / KASK Ghent, Sint-Lucas Beeldende

Kunst Ghent, Koninklijke Academie voor Schone Kunsten Antwerp, Sint Lucas Antwerp and SLAC/Academie Beeldende Kunst Leuven.

The exhibition is organized in collaboration with the LeWitt Collection, Chester, Connecticut.

Sol LeWitt grew up in Hartford in the American state of Connecticut. After studying art at the University of Syracuse he moved to New York in the early 1950s and joined the Illustrators and Cartoonists School (now the School of Visual Arts). He had a number of casual jobs, including a stint as graphic designer at I.M. Pei’s architectural office and as night warden at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA). This enabled him to meet other artists, including Dan Flavin, Robert Ryman and Robert Mangold, as well as the art critic Lucy R. Lippard, also employed at the museum at the time.

In his early work, LeWitt was linked to the Minimal Art, but he quickly evolved towards a more conceptual approach. He is seen as one of the forerunners and pioneers of conceptual art. LeWitt brought about a remarkable change in the way we think about art by separating an artwork’s conception from its execution. He made a major contribution to the history of contemporary art with a very prolific and far-reaching carreer. His oeuvre includes structures (three-dimensional

works), photographic series, drawings on paper, prints, artist’s books, and of course, wall drawings, his tmost emblematic practice. LeWitt also published a number of seminal writings, including “Paragraphs on Conceptual Art” (1967) and “Sentences on Conceptual Art” (1969). He also wrote the text about his wall drawing practice included at the beginning of the brochure.

LeWitt’s first solo exhibition took place in 1965 and since then his work has been exhibited in numerous group and solo exhibitions internationally. In Belgium, LeWitt’s work was shown at a very early stage and acquired by both public institutions and private collectors. The exhibition in M is the first to bring LeWitt’s wall drawings to Belgium on such a large scale.

Sol leWitt (1928-2007)

CataloGUe: Sol leWitt. orDer aND DiSorDer

To accompany the exhibitions at Centre Pompidou-Metz and M–Museum Leuven, a new monograph is being published: Sol LeWitt. Order and Disorder. This ambitious publication aims to become a new reference book on Sol LeWitt, as most monographic books about the artist are now out-of-print. The catalogue will be divided in two parts: part one will look at the work of Sol LeWitt, with an emphasis on his wall drawings; part two will compile all of LeWitt’s writings, published all together for the first time in French, and a selection of interviews.

Through an exceptional selection of illustrations, including installation views of wall drawings at Centre Pompidou-Metz and M-Museum Leuven, a number of previously unpublished documents, and texts by acclaimed international authors including Lucy R. Lippard, Rosalind Krauss and Anne Rorimer, this monograph presents every aspect of the work of this major artist of the second half of the twentieth century.

Published by Centre Pompidou-Metz in partnership with M–Museum Leuven, the catalogue will be launched in September 2012 and can now be pre-ordered at M’s bookshop.

Fully illustrated | English and French editions | € 39.90

CeNtre PoMPiDoU-Metz: Sol leWitt. Wall DraWiNGS froM 1968 to 2007

Sol LeWitt. Colors at M is organized in collaboration with Centre Pompidou-Metz where a retrospective exhibition featuring over thirty black and white wall drawings is on view for the first time in Europe through July 29 2013.

www.centrepompidou-metz.fr

More iN M

ines lechleiTner. oBjeTs reposés

07.06.12 >< 02.09.12rooms 28-30

The work of Ines Lechleitner (B. Vienna, 1978) encompasses such varied media as photography, video, installation and drawing. In her work, she analyses the correlation between different forms of communication, such as sound, image and text. Along with a number of other artists, writers and academics, Lechleitner’s current project concentrates on questions concerning sensory translation. How is one sense connected to another? How can someone else evoke a sensory experience? M is exhibiting a selection from the series Sense Correspondence, as well as a site-specific installation: an ode to the LeWitt exhibition.

acTiviTies

Linked to the Sol LeWitt. Colors exhibition, M is organizing numerous activities for groups, families and individual visitors. Ask for our M-diary at the reception desk.

acTiviTy Book for children from 8

To 10 years: sol lewiTT. color

Leo the chameleon likes changing color. In this activity book for children from 8 to 10 years old, he tells you more about the artist Sol LeWitt. Just like Leo, Sol really loves color. He does gigantic drawings on the wall in a variety of colors, lines and shapes. Join Leo in solving the tasks in the book and learn more about the materials, colors and shapes in Sol LeWitt’s work.

The book is available in Dutch and French. It is free if you buy a Bruynzeel pencil box for € 9.95. For sale at the M-shop from 1 July.With support of the National Lottery and Bruynzeel.

relateD eVeNt

lucinda childs. dance

12.10 & 13.10 | 20:30 kaaiTheaTer, Brussels

In Dance (1979) by Lucinda Childs (US), one of the icons of postmodern dance, we dive deep into American dance history. Childs created Dance in collaboration with composer Philip Glass and artist Sol LeWitt. A black and white film by LeWitt of the performance is projected on stage. Here Childs produces a performance in which dance, film and music intertwine seamlessly.

www.kaaitheater.be or www.lucindachilds.com

ColoPhoN

curaTors Béatrice Gross (Independent curator, New York) & Eva Wittocx (M-Museum Leuven) TranslaTed By Gregory Ballcover image Sol LeWitt, Wall Drawing #299 (detail), The wall is divided into three equal parts, each with a different color. A 6-inch (15,2 cm) grid covering the wall. First part: On red, white lines from the midpoints of each side to points on the grid. Second part: On yellow, white lines from the center to points on the grid. Third part: On blue, white lines from the corners to points on the grid. Each part has an equal number of lines. (The number and their length are determined by the drafter.), 1976. Collection Levi Strauss & Co, San Francisco. © SABAM / Photo: M - Museum Leuven / Lieven Herreman

Organized in collaboration with the LeWitt Collection, Chester, Connecticut.With support of the Belgian National Lottery.With support of the embassy of the United States of America and the embassy of France in Belgium.

M • l. VaNDerkeleNStraat 28, b-3000 leUVeN • t +32 16 27 29 29 • WWW.MleUVeN.be