Sol LeWitt studied at Syracuse University and the Cartoonists and Illustrators School in New York. He began his career as a graphic designer in 1955, working in the firm of architect I. M. Pei. He soon began to explore painting and the modular, geometric wall and floor sculptures that he is known for today.
A leading conceptual artist, LeWitt outlined the tenets on the movement in his 1967 essay, Paragraphs on Conceptual Art, explaining that “The idea or concept is the most important aspect of the work.” He went on to clarify that Conceptual art is different from traditional works of art, which he defined as being “perceptual,” or based on the sense of sight. The following year the artist made his first wall drawing, an important form that he continued to explore until his death in 2007. Adhering to the notions of Conceptual art, the wall drawings exist first as a set of instructions, which can then be executed by either the artist or an assistant.
