The idea itself, even if not made visual, is as much a work of art as any finished product
— Sol LeWitt
Sol LeWitt (1928–2007) was a central figure in the development of Conceptual Art and played a decisive role in redefining artistic practice in the second half of the twentieth century. In contrast to the expressive and gestural approaches associated with Abstract Expressionism and the New York School of the 1950s, LeWitt advanced an art grounded in structure, logic, and systematic thought.
For LeWitt, the idea constituted the core of the work. This distinction between conception and realization challenged traditional notions of authorship, shifting emphasis from the singular art object to process, instruction, and method. Using the cube as a “grammatical device,” his work developed through systematic investigations of form, line, and color, culminating in the open-grid structures and wall drawings that became emblematic of his practice.
LeWitt’s association with Konrad Fischer Galerie began in 1968, marking the start of a long-standing professional and intellectual relationship with the gallery and its founder, Konrad Fischer. Over subsequent decades, LeWitt and Fischer maintained an extensive correspondence, frequently exchanging postcards that documented their ongoing dialogue about art, exhibitions, and ideas. This sustained exchange reflects the close alignment between LeWitt’s conceptual approach and Fischer’s role in shaping the European reception of Minimal and Conceptual art. The postcard correspondence now forms part of the Konrad Fischer Archive, held in Düsseldorf by the Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen.
LeWitt’s work has been the subject of major museum exhibitions internationally, including early presentations at the Museum of Modern Art, New York, and the Kunsthalle Bern, as well as comprehensive retrospectives organized by institutions such as the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art in 2000, which traveled to the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, and the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York. His work is held in major public collections worldwide, including the Tate, London; Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven; Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris; National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.; Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York; Museum of Modern Art, New York; Dia:Beacon; and the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, D.C. In 2008, MASS MoCA inaugurated Sol LeWitt: A Wall Drawing Retrospective, a long-term installation that will remain on view through 2033.