Sol LeWitt at MassMoCA

MassMoCA, the huge converted mill in North Adams, Mass., is preparing a retrospective exhibit of wall paintings by Sol LeWitt. An entire 27,000 square foot building will be dedicated to the show that opens November 16, 2008, and will be on view for the next 25 years. The exhibit is being installed with the blessing and co-sponsorship of the LeWitt Foundation and Yale University.

For any reader who doesn’t know, Sol LeWitt’s abstract wall drawings and paintings are applied directly to a pre-primed, specially prepared wall. And they are BIG! Dia Beacon, the factory-turned-gallery in Beacon, New York, designed to showcase works of art so big that other museums can’t accommodate them, has a wing full of LeWitt’s.

Also useful information: Sol LeWitt died last year at the age of 79.

So how is it that previously un-painted paintings are being installed at MassMoCA?

LeWitt “designed and graphed” these drawings/paintings on paper. When an art piece was purchased – or in the case of a museum or gallery show, put on exhibit – trained assistants with the help of apprentices transferred the graphed information (including explicit instructions for preparations) to the wall surfaces. Buyers were given a certificate to verify that the work was an “original” along with a copy of the certified graph to forward to any future buyer (in case they wanted to either sell the work or simply move it to another location.) LeWitt died leaving closets full of never installed works, among them the supersized pieces going up at MassMoCA.

One Rochester art collector owns a LeWitt wall pencil drawing. It is applied to a bedroom wall. Local artists supervised by a LeWitt foreman did the work. The final step – spraying a fixative so that the graphite drawing would be sealed against dirt and dust – was skipped at the request of the owner who preferred the very matt finish, pre-spray.

All went well and the finished piece is exquisite. Then the electrician and his helper came to install special lighting to enhance the piece. The helper inadvertently brushed up against the wall drawing and smudged the graphite in one spot. Rather than remove and redraw the entire piece, the owner decided to let well enough alone and add the smudge to the lore of the installed work.

The Japanese have a term – wabisabi – that means there is beauty in the imperfect. They would understand the owner’s decision.