Plate (folio 9) from Six Geometric Figures and All Their Combinations, Volume I

Sol LeWitt

1980

An etching from an illustrated book in which Sol LeWitt uses repeated, precisely spaced lines to outline a square and a triangle as a controlled, rule-based study of basic geometric forms.

You first notice a field of dense black incised with thin white lines whose orientation shifts to carve out a vertically striped square at left and a diagonally bounded triangle at right, creating a steady, almost musical rhythm of positive and negative space.

Part of LeWitt’s serial, conceptual practice, this work shows how simple rules and permutations of line and shape can generate a rigorous visual language that helped redefine art as a system or instruction rather than solely an individual gesture.

Palette

Exhibitions

Sol Lewitt

1978

Works from Change, Inc.

1974

Contemporary Works from the Collection: American Sculpture from the...

1989

Etchings Etc.

1972