Throughout the 1960s and early 1970s, Sol LeWitt designed elaborate sculptures that investigate permutations of a single cube. A prime example of LeWitt’s approach to Minimalism and geometrical composition, Eight Unit Cube (No. 7402) (1976) explores the basic form of the square and the modular grid, some of the primary elements of LeWitt’s work in both two and three dimensions. First installed on the grounds of the United Nations headquarters in New York City in 1976 as part of the Dag Hammarskjold Sculpture Plaza program, the towering sculpture comprises eight separate cubic units that combine to form one large white cube.
LeWitt was a pioneer figure of Conceptual and Minimal art that stressed the importance of the idea of art over the execution of the work itself. LeWitt’s prolific oeuvre ranges from wall drawings to photographs and hundreds of works on paper, and extends to book design and sculptures in the form of towers, pyramids, and geometric structures. LeWitt’s practice questioned established notions of art by stressing the importance of the idea of art over the execution of the work itself, opening new definitions of what art can be. LeWitt also created systems, often mathematical or architectural in nature, as blueprints, which in turn became the works of art themselves.
Sol LeWitt (b. 1928, Hartford, Connecticut; d. 2007, New York City) has been exhibited nationally and internationally, with solo shows at the Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Moderna, Rome (2008); Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (2005); Hammer Museum, Los Angeles (2004); Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco (2000); Whitney Museum of American Art, New York (2000); Haags Gemeentemuseum, The Netherlands (1992); Musee d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris (1987); and the High Museum of Art, Atlanta (1974), among many others. His works are found in museum collections internationally, including the Tate, London; Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven, The Netherlands; Musee National d’Art Moderne, Paris; Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris; Australian National Gallery, Canberra; Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York,; Museum of Modern Art, New York; Dia:Beacon, New York; National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC; and the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, DC.
