Sol LeWitt, born 1928 in Hartford, Connecticut, was one of the leading figures of the Conceptual and Minimal Art movements of the 1960s and 1970s. LeWitt challenged traditional notions about what an artwork could be, arguing that the idea is the artwork in itself and its execution is perfunctory. His pioneering assertion that an idea takes precedence over the physical object redefined art production and the role of the artist.
A major retrospective of LeWitt’s work was organized by the San Francisco Museum of Art in 2000 and traveled to the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, and the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York. His works are found in the most important museum collections including: Tate, London; Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven, The Netherlands; Musée National d’Art Moderne, Paris; Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris; Australian National Gallery, Canberra, Australia; Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York; Museum of Modern Art, New York; Dia:Beacon, New York; National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.; and the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, D.C. LeWitt died in 2007 in New York.