Style Imitating Art: “Wall Drawing No. 652”

Style Imitating Art…

Welcome to Style Imitating Art which comes from Salazar, Shelbee, and me. You can think of this series as fashion meets art museum! SIA challenges people to find inspiration in different art works, create looks based upon that art work, and share them with the curator for that piece. I am this week’s curator with this amazing installation at the Indianapolis Museum of Art. I hope you enjoy this post, the information, and my interpretation.

How it works…

Every other Monday one of us selects an inspiration piece of art and posts the image on their blog. We then invite others to interpret that art work through their style. The following Monday, we share our outfits. The curator shares submissions the following Wednesday on her blog. I chose this week’s art work for this round of Style Imitating Art. If you’d like, you can read why I chose it here. Please send your photo to me by Tuesday, March 11th, 2025 by 10 pm EST. Style Imitating Art is an interesting way to inspire your outfits. You can see a few of my looks , here, here, here, and here.

About the artist…

Solomon LeWitt was born on September 9, 1928 in Hartford, Connecticut.  His parents were Russian immigrants.  After his father’s death when he was six, Sol’s mother took him to art classes.  He earned a BFA at Syracuse University in 1949.  Following graduation, LeWitt went to Europe.  He served in the Korean War before ending up in New York City in 1953.  He had a studio in the old Ashkenazi Jewish Settlement on Hester Street on the Lower East Side.  He continued to study at the School of Visual Arts while working at Seventeen magazine.  LeWitt was a graphic designer for I.M. Pei, the architect, for one year.  By 1960, he was working as a night receptionist and clerk at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA).  His exposure to photographer, Eadweard Muybridge, as well as his work at MoMA influenced his later work.  While at MoMA, he encountered countless artists and became friends with many of them.

A little more…

I was going to save this for my “Wrap it Up” section, but I just have to put this out there.  I really think LeWitt was a mathematician at heart.  He focused so heavily on the shapes of what he was creating and used many geometric terms and ideas.  Even the term, structure, rather than sculpture is more mathematical in nature.  I’m guessing, if he were still alive, and open to taking those right brain/left brain quizzes that we’d discover he was middle brained with a heavier emphasis on the right brain.  I say that because that’s me…not that I could think the way LeWitt did.  When you’re middle brained, you struggle to figure out just where you fit in the whole right brain/left brain idea.  I always laughingly said I was middle brained and finally found a quiz that supported my thoughts.  But, I digress. 

Even more…

In the early 60s, LeWitt began producing his “structures,” a term he liked better than sculpture.  His early structures were wooden forms he then heavily lacquered by hand.  LeWitt then thought it would be interesting to remove the “skin” of the structure and moved to creating structures that were still three dimensional but actually showed the negative space created by the “bones” of the item.  He began to experiment with that open or negative space.  He used the most basic of three-dimensional forms…the cube, a form in which he’d always been interested.  As his work evolved, LeWitt used this new “open” cube to construct larger interconnected structures. 

“In the mid-1960s, LeWitt began to work with the open cube: twelve identical linear elements connected at eight corners to form a skeletal structure. From 1969, he would conceive many of his modular structures on a large scale, to be constructed in aluminum or steel by industrial fabricators (source).”

Still more…

LeWitt’s mathematical tendencies really come to the fore with these structures.  He applied bodily proportion to his “fundamental sculptural unit at this scale.”  He finally decided on a scale of 8.5:1 or 17/2.  This would be the standard for his modular cubes.  Now, if you understand all of this, I’m impressed because I read it and read it and read it, and I’m still confuzzled!  LeWitt also decided, arbitrarily (just like that ratio) to paint everything white because black was too “expressive!”  Museums published lesson suggestions for elementary educators to encourage students to investigate the math behind his artworks!  Honestly, for more on his structures, read this on Wikipedia.

A skosh more…

In 1968, LeWitt turned to the Wall Drawings.  He started to come up with “sets of guidelines” for two-dimensional works created right on the walls.  He moved from graphite to crayon to colored pencil to washes of India ink to brighter acrylic paint as well as other materials.  He created a wall drawing for the inaugural show of the Paula Cooper Gallery in 1968.  From then on, thousands of his drawings have been created on walls around the world.  Most of the installations of these art pieces were completed by people other than LeWitt.  His wall drawings are varied both in media, texture, and shapes.  They are created on-site, exist for however long the exhibition is and are then destroyed.  These drawings can be installed, removed and reinstalled like our piece.  Between 1968 and 2007, LeWitt created more than 1,270 wall drawings. 

A bit more…

LeWitt also taught at many schools in New York, including New York University and the School of Visual Arts.  A founder of both Minimal and Conceptual art, LeWitt also produced works in drawing, printmaking, photography, installation and artist’s books.  In addition to his own work, LeWitt, himself, has been the subject of solo exhibitions around the world since 1965.  For a while, LeWitt lived in Spoleto, Italy.  He returned to the United States in the late 80s and made Chester, Connecticut his home.  He died April 8, 2007 from cancer complications. 

Finally…

I think this really sums him up:  “Sol LeWitt was one of the main figures of his time; he transformed the process of art-making by questioning the fundamental relationship between an idea, the subjectivity of the artist, and the artwork a given idea might produce. While many artists were challenging modern conceptions of originality, authorship, and artistic genius in the 1960s, LeWitt denied that approaches such as Minimalism, Conceptualism, and Process Art were merely technical or illustrative of philosophy. In his Paragraphs on Conceptual Art, LeWitt asserted that Conceptual art was neither mathematical nor intellectual but intuitive, given that the complexity inherent to transforming an idea into a work of art was fraught with contingencies.  LeWitt’s art is not about the singular hand of the artist; it is the idea behind each work that surpasses the work itself. In the early 21st century, LeWitt’s work, especially the wall drawings, has been critically acclaimed for its economic perspicacity. Though modest—most exist as simple instructions on a sheet of paper—the drawings can be made again and again and again, anywhere in the world, without the artist needing to be involved in their production (source).”

The art work…

The painting is Lascaux acrylic wash on the wall and measures 30 x 60 ft (9.14 x 18.29 m). The initial painting was in the Herron School of Art which was associated with the Indianapolis Museum of Art (that connection ended in 1970). The painting surrounded a staircase connecting the ground level with Herron Hall. Originally, a gift of the Dudley Sutphin Family in 1990, the family agreed to fund the re-creation of the wall in 2005 at the IMA. This wall is on the second floor of the museum. The “LOVE” sculpture by Robert Indiana is placed several feet in front of it. I think it’s a perfect juxtaposition of the whole 60s vibe! The original wall was painted in inks which had been discontinued. LeWitt chose acrylic paints which closely matched the original Pelican ink washes.

A little more…

On top of the change in media, LeWitt had to extend the original drawing downward and outward so that the entire wall was covered. In order to create “Wall Drawing 652,” LeWitt placed dots in a random pattern (if it’s a pattern, is it random) on a piece of paper. Then, he connected them “intuitively” with lines. I’m not exactly sure how he determined which colors went where, though. Believe it or not, this entire wall is created with four colors: red, yellow, blue, and gray washes. These colors weren’t mixed together prior to painting them on the wall, though. A color would have been applied to the wall, then another, and perhaps another. Up close, there appears to be a texture. You can’t, however, touch the wall so I’m not sure if there’s a texture or not. Two assistants from LeWitt’s Studio, Tomas Ramberg and Sara Heinemann and five local students from Butler University, Rachel Eckstein, George Ben Murray, Brittan Fowler, Kate Nickols, and Joshua Aaron, worked to plot the design on the walls. After putting the design on the wall, they then applied the colors.

Even more…

Interestingly, this piece of art can be loaned to other museums. I don’t know all of the specifics, but the drawing can be loaned out and recreated in whatever space. One caveat is that its proportions must remain the same. This “piece” has been loaned out to other institutions. There is a time specified when the installation must be removed.

LeWitt says of conceptual art:

“[the] idea or concept is the most important aspect of the work. 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 (source).”

My interpretation…

This is another piece from Daenel. Shelbee calls it being Daeneled! Both of us have received very generous packages of beautiful clothing. While I have lots of very colorful clothing, I didn’t have much of anything with the sharp angles and geometric aspects of this painting. Then, I discovered this beautiful top/dress/tunic! It not only has the colors (maybe not grey), but it also has different geometric patches. It’s long enough to be a dress, but I decided to wear it over jeans. I could definitely add a slip for a completely different look! And, yes, I’m wearing white before Memorial Day! These jeans are very old and are from Talbots.

The Lewk!

Earlier this year, I purchased three new pairs of L’Artiste shoes/sandals. These are the Carys sandals and are on sale in very limited sizes. I was kinda surprised the straps were true buckles as most of the time, they’re velcro. I wanted to wear the most colorful jewelry I had, and I think I was pretty successful! The necklace is from Allie & Bess. You can add additional charms to it. I do wish they’d offered it in silvertone, though. The bracelets, from World Finds, are part of their Cause collection. These are the Equality bracelets. I have no idea where I bought the earrings. They’re a weird not quite gold, not quite silver color.

Wrap it up, Marsha!

I honestly thought this was going to be a short one! Artists are complicated, aren’t they? It’s so interesting to me how one person can come up with so many completely different ideas. So, can we talk? Do you agree with me about LeWitt’s mathematical leanings? Did you, just for a minute, think, “I could do that?” How impressed are you that this wall is composed of only four colors? Please leave me a comment or two, and we can talk. I promise to respond as quickly as I can.

Don’t forget…

If you want to be included in the Style Imitating Art round up, send me your photo by 10:00 pm EST Tuesday, March 11th. Photos of everyone participating will appear on my blog on Wednesday, March 12th! If you’re interested in join us, consider all of your options…the colors, the lines, the textures! Come on, give it a try! I think you’ll love it!

Thank you!

I want to thank all of you from the bottom of my heart for reading, commenting, subscribing or emailing! It truly means so much to me! If you’d like to follow me on Instagram, you can find me here.

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Where you can find me:

Linking up with Nancy’s Fashion Style,  Fine-Whatever, Is This Mutton, Shelbee on the Edge, Chez Mireile, Suzy Turner, and Away from the Blue as well as Deb’s World and A Fresh Cup of Coffee. I also link up with This Blonde’s Shopping Bag, Doused in Pink, I do deClaire, Mummabstylish, Style Splash and Elegantly Dressed and Stylish as well as the Senior Salon Pit Stop (Esme’s Salon) and Slices of Life. Please check out these wonderful ladies and their blogs! I also am a co-host for Ageless Style on the third Thursday of the month and Songful Style on the last Monday of the month. I co-host Traffic Jam Weekend every Thursday with Melynda, Lisa, and Sue. I also host Final Fridays on the last Friday of the month as well as 10 on the 10th on the 10th of the month! I do hope you’ll check out all of these blogs and link parties!

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