Sol Lewitt

Sol LeWitt (Hartford, 1928 – New York, 2007)

The friendship between the Gori and LeWitt families originated and solidified within the context of the Spoleto Festivalof the Two Worlds. Every July, Pina and Giuliano attended performances in Umbria before Carol and Sol came up to spend a few days conversing about art in the garden of Celle. Sol LeWitt became acquainted with the spaces of the farm before the restoration of the fattoriabuilding began in 1985. In the same year, he chose a former hayloft as a site to install one of his Wall Drawings (WD#445), in which the use of colors was inspired by the presence of terracotta flooring and the roof tiles visible through the large windows. The following year, WD#494created on the opposite wall referred to the shades of blue and green present in Anelloverde di Prato that, in the meantime, Richard Long had been created on the floor. In 1998, LeWitt fulfilled Giuliano’s wish to have an artwork outdoors by creating Cubosenzacubo in the park.

In 1993, two significant events occurred: the production of the precious CD set of music performed byContempartensemble (one copy of which entered the MOMA’s design collection). Over the years, Giuliano Gori involved the artist in various projects, including an indoor work (WD#736, 1993) and an outdoor one (Torre irregolare, 1998) for the Luigi Pecci Center for Contemporary Art in Prato; Murocurvo (2002) in pure white marble for the Biennial of Sculpture in Carrara; WD#1126 (2004) for the Municipality of Reggio Emilia on the ceiling of the Panizza Library; and WD#1155 (2005-2006) for the waiting room of the Hemodialysis Pavilion at the Hospital of Ceppo in Pistoia. The large cycle of WD#1122 dates back to the summer of 2004. Originally conceived as a temporary exhibition in Casapeppe, the fifteen black background squares (4 by 4 meters) are intersected by lines drawn in the four cardinal directions and all their variations. The installation inside the exhibition space is heralded by an ideal complement placed in the Casapeppe courtyard: the sculpture 1-2-3-2-1 in white aluminum LeWitt’s minimalist exploration of modularity.

“The most interesting characteristic of the cube is that it is relatively uninteresting. Compared to any other three-dimensional form, the cube lacks any aggressive force, implies no motion, and is least emotive. Therefore, it is the best form to use as a basic unit for any more elaborate function, the grammatical device from which the work may proceed. Because it is standard and universally recognized, no intention is required of the viewer; it is immediately understood that the cube represents the cube, a geometric figure that is uncontestably itself”. -Sol Lewitt, “The Cube” in Art in America, estate 1966

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Works by the artist

1-2-3-2-1

The Cube without a Cube

Pencil Lines in Four Directions and All Their Combinations on Black Squares (Wall Drawing #1122)

Wall Drawings 445 & 494

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