April 10, 2007
The Finiteness of Life & Art
Someone forwarded me an email this morning that gave me pause. My first reaction was one of urgency, as in "somebody should do something!" Considering all the circumstances, however, I wonder. The image above was taken on the rooftop of the Metropolitan Museum in NYC; it's of a piece called Splotch #3 by Sol Lewitt, who died Sunday at the age of 78. From his NYTimes obit:
Mr. LeWitt helped establish Conceptualism and Minimalism as dominant movements of the postwar era. A patron and friend of colleagues young and old, he was the opposite of the artist as celebrity. He tried to suppress all interest in him as opposed to his work; he turned down awards and was camera-shy and reluctant to grant interviews. He particularly disliked the prospect of having his photograph in the newspaper.
Typically, a 1980 work called “Autobiography” consisted of more than 1,000 photographs he took of every nook and cranny of his Manhattan loft, down to the plumbing fixtures, wall sockets and empty marmalade jars, and documented everything that had happened to him in the course of taking the pictures. But he appeared in only one photograph, which was so small and out of focus that it is nearly impossible to make him out. His work — sculptures of white cubes, or drawings of geometric patterns, or splashes of paint like Rorschach patterns — tested a viewer’s psychological and visual flexibility. See a line. See that it can be straight, thin, broken, curved, soft, angled or thick. Enjoy the differences. The test was not hard to pass if your eyes and mind were open, which was the message of Mr. LeWitt’s art.
I loved the post written by Jen Carlson that we ran at Gothamist because it had a large-sized crop of the above photo. It was interesting enough that in Monday's Extra, Extra post, I chose a picture of a young girl embracing LeWitt's art: literally.
So this morning's recieved email was a bit of a surprise, as it described some of LeWitt's wall drawings that exist inside one of the buildings slated for destruction at Brooklyn's Atlantic Yards development project. An excerpt:
644 Pacific Street is in the footprint of Bruce Ratner's proposed "Atlantic Yards" project, specifically in the footprint of the arena itself. In that building, once occupied by one of Mr. Lewitt's studio assistants, are at least two wall paintings by the artist. The building is in the list of the first round of demolitions the developer intends to begin in the coming weeks. These wall paintings should be photographed for historical documentation and the Sol Lewitt catalogue.
This is a fairly small request. The sender doesn't even seem to be calling for perservation of the works, just documentation before they are destroyed. I then remembered the closing lines of the obit that Carlson wrote for Gothamist, recounting LeWitt's lack of sentimentality in regards to his works' temporary nature.
LeWitt moved to New York in 1953 and had a variety of short-term jobs, including night receptionist at the Museum of Modern Art. His first solo art show was at the John Daniels Gallery in 1965 and his first wall drawing, part of a 1968 display, moved the gallery owner so much that she couldn't bear to paint over it and insisted LeWitt do it himself, which he did without hesitating.
Of course, LeWitt was only 39 then, just halfway through his 78 years. I'm sure the cavalierness of an artist with decades of productivity ahead of him may have been tempered as those years ahead diminished. In that respect, LeWitt treated his art as most of us treat life. And the end of both LeWitt's life and some of his work may intersect at Atlantic Ave. and Pacific St. in 2007.
Posted by Lexiphane at April 10, 2007 2:31 PM
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Comments
See here, it explains why documentation not preservation was requested:
http://dddb.net/php/latestnews_Linked.php?id=662
Posted by: Anonymous at April 11, 2007 9:42 AM
Thanks for the link. This is such a small request, I hope Forest City Ratner allows the photgraphing to take place. Refusal would just seem so petty.
Posted by: Lexiphane ![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.lexiphane.com/mt/nav-commenters.gif)
at April 11, 2007 11:04 AM