abstraction, materiality, process

Each wall drawing begins as a set of instructions or simple diagram to be followed in executing the work. As the exhibition makes clear, these straightforward instructions yield an astonishing and stunningly beautiful variety of work that is at once simple and highly complex, rigorous and sensual. I love Sol LeWitt’s work as you can get approved instructions from an artist for his works to print on walls.

The drawings in the exhibition range from layers of straight lines meticulously drawn in black graphite pencil lead, to rows of delicately rendered wavy lines in coloured pencil from bold black and white geometric forms, to bright planes in acrylic paint arranged like the panels of a folding screen from sensuous drawings created by dozens of layers of transparent washes, to a tangle of vibratory orange lines on a green wall, and much more. Forms may appear to be flat, to recede in space, or to project into the viewer's space, while others meld to the structure of the wall itself.

The conceptual artist must make his work mentally interesting for the viewer. Faced with the complexity of the graphic network of Arcs from four corners, the viewer has to sense the structure of the work, not to feel any emotion. The use of pencil is typical of the first wall drawings, which began in 1968.