"Bands of Color in Four Directions & All Directions, 1971"<
Sol LeWitt
SUSAN SHEEHAN GALLERY
136 East 16th Street New York, NY 10003
Tel 212 489-3331 Fax 212 489-4009 e-mail:
October, 2020
"Bands of Color in Four Directions & All Combinations" emblematizes key themes that interested Sol LeWitt throughout his career, including seriality and repetition. The etchings that comprise "Bands of Color in Four Directions & All Combinations" were made from just two plates, which LeWitt arranged and layered in various ways to create sixteen unique combinations of parallel lines, all printed in primary colors.
To create these prints, LeWitt worked with Kathan Brown at Crown Point Press in San Francisco. LeWitt was the first artist from outside California to ever work with Crown Point, which Brown had founded in 1962. Recollecting her first encounters with LeWitt, Brown describes his approach and ideas as "mystifying," especially compared to the work of other artists with whom she had worked frequently in the 1960s, such as Richard Diebenkorn. "Bands of Color in Four Directions & All Combinations" was the second print series LeWitt created with Brown in 1971.
In his "Paragraphs on Conceptual Art" (1967), LeWitt stated: "When an artist uses a conceptual form of art, it means that all of the planning and decisions are made beforehand and the execution is a perfunctory affair. The idea becomes a machine that makes the art." In keeping with these notions, LeWitt's wall drawings and sculptures were often—and continue to be—realized by assistants following LeWitt's instructions. However, the tactile medium of etching necessitates the presence of an artist's hand, and LeWitt chose to "draw" all his own prints. At Crown Point, LeWitt drew directly onto the copper plates, which were then inked and processed by the workshop printers.
Despite LeWitt's belief that conceptual artworks were ostensibly entirely premeditated, Brown points out that the artist occasionally had to alter his plans for a print during the printing process. For example, while working on a series of etchings in the 1990s, LeWitt suddenly felt the prints bore too close a resemblance to the style of Keith Haring. Aiming instead to draw on an earlier work of his own—his first Crown Point print, "Lines Not Long, Not Straight, and Not Touching," from 1971—he immediately worked with the printers to alter it. LeWitt once remarked that "what the work looks like isn't too important," but Brown suggests that his attention to detail in and willingness to adjust his prints indicates that some may apply this oft-cited quote to LeWitt's practice too literally.
LeWitt continually returned to printmaking—and Crown Point Press—throughout his life, making this early portfolio a pivotal and historic work.
To create these prints, LeWitt worked with Kathan Brown at Crown Point Press in San Francisco. LeWitt was the first artist from outside California to ever work with Crown Point, which Brown had founded in 1962. Recollecting her first encounters with LeWitt, Brown describes his approach and ideas as "mystifying," especially compared to the work of other artists with whom she had worked frequently in the 1960s, such as Richard Diebenkorn. "Bands of Color in Four Directions & All Combinations" was the second print series LeWitt created with Brown in 1971.
In his "Paragraphs on Conceptual Art" (1967), LeWitt stated: "When an artist uses a conceptual form of art, it means that all of the planning and decisions are made beforehand and the execution is a perfunctory affair. The idea becomes a machine that makes the art." In keeping with these notions, LeWitt's wall drawings and sculptures were often—and continue to be—realized by assistants following LeWitt's instructions. However, the tactile medium of etching necessitates the presence of an artist's hand, and LeWitt chose to "draw" all his own prints. At Crown Point, LeWitt drew directly onto the copper plates, which were then inked and processed by the workshop printers.
Despite LeWitt's belief that conceptual artworks were ostensibly entirely premeditated, Brown points out that the artist occasionally had to alter his plans for a print during the printing process. For example, while working on a series of etchings in the 1990s, LeWitt suddenly felt the prints bore too close a resemblance to the style of Keith Haring. Aiming instead to draw on an earlier work of his own—his first Crown Point print, "Lines Not Long, Not Straight, and Not Touching," from 1971—he immediately worked with the printers to alter it. LeWitt once remarked that "what the work looks like isn't too important," but Brown suggests that his attention to detail in and willingness to adjust his prints indicates that some may apply this oft-cited quote to LeWitt's practice too literally.
LeWitt continually returned to printmaking—and Crown Point Press—throughout his life, making this early portfolio a pivotal and historic work.
 | Sol LeWitt |
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