Lot 13 email save

SOL LEWITT, Modular Cube/Base, circa 1971

Modular Cube/Base, circa 1971
Baked enamel on steel in two parts. Cube: 13 3/8 x 13 3/8 x 13 3/8 in. (34 x 34 x 34 cm); base: 40 1/8 x 40 1/8 x 3/8 in. (101.9 x 101.9 x 1 cm); 13 3/4 x 40 1/8 x 40 1/8 in. (34.9 x 101.9 x 101.9 cm) overall.

PROVENANCE Dewain Valentine, Hawaii; Private collection, New York; Paula Cooper Gallery, New York; David and Mary Robinson, San Francisco; Private collection, New York; L&M Arts, New York
EXHIBITED New York, L&M Arts, Elemental Form, October 19 - December 16, 2006
LITERATURE L&M Arts, ed., Elemental Form, New York, 2006, p.17 (illustrated)

"The best that can be said for either the square or the cube is that they are relatively uninteresting in themselves. Being basic representations of two- and three-dimensional form, they lack the expressive force of other more interesting forms and shapes. They are standard and universally recognized, no initiation being required of the viewer; it is immediately evident that a square is a square and a cube, a cube. Released from the necessity of being significant in themselves, they can be better used as grammatical devices from which the work may proceed. The use of a square or cube obviates the necessity of inventing other forms and reserves their use for invention," (S. LeWitt, "Homage to the Square," Art in America, July/August 1967, p. 54).   In the 1960s Sol LeWitt introduced the beginning of his threedimensional sculptural works. Both conceptual and minimalist, these works culminated LeWitt's interest in mathematical models and spatial incorporation within art. The skeletal mathematical matrix fused with the simplicity and sterility of the white cubic form of the present lot creates an architectural three-dimensional Cartesian plane which leads the viewer to focus on both the form and the space in which it occupies. The grid-like plinth on which the skeletal cube is centered adds an additional geometrical element where the viewer can imagine the numerous positional possibilities within the ridged structure and reinforces the mathematical precision of the structural placement.

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