About the art
It is impossible to pass through the atrium of Pomerene Hall and not be struck by Sol LeWitt’s towering Wall Drawing #931. The closer one approaches this monumental work, the more the concentric rings of color begin to puzzle and please the eye. At the edge of each band, one can observe the optical phenomenon known as vibration, in which contrasting colors placed in proximity result in the illusion of movement or visual “buzzing.” Vibration is only one of the remarkable qualities of this work, which is one of LeWitt’s many iterative experiments with form, color and the flat surface.
Each of LeWitt’s hundreds of numbered wall drawings are produced based on the artist’s written guidelines or drawn diagrams. While many of the drawings were produced by LeWitt himself, many were done by others, which the artist considered inconsequential to the work’s outcome. LeWitt’s instructions are the work of art, and the visual result is simply one possible iteration of his concept. This philosophy also allows multiple realizations of LeWitt’s instructions to exist simultaneously.
This work was executed in 2018 by Gabriel Hurier of the Sol LeWitt Estate with the assistance of Ohio State MFA students Gloria Shows ’19 and Jameel Paulin ’21 and undergraduates Philip Hurier and Elizabeth Frankland.
Collection of The Ohio State University. Funded through the Ohio Percent for Art program.
Material
Acrylic paint
Location
Inside Pomerene Hall
About the Artist
Sol LeWitt is best known as a founder of conceptual art, a movement that originated in the 1960s. Conceptual art rejected the notion that works of art represented a subjective expression of the artist’s emotional state. LeWitt and others involved in the movement decentered individual skill and tried to erase all evidence of the artist’s hand. LeWitt’s words on the subject from a 1967 article have often been quoted to define this mode of art-making: “In 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 the planning and decisions are made beforehand, and the execution is a perfunctory affair. The idea becomes a machine that makes the art.”
