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Artists teach critics what to think. Critics repeat what the artists teach them.

Sol LeWitt

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Sol LeWitt
Age: 78 †
Born: 1928
Born: September 9
Died: 2007
Died: April 8
Architect
Artist
Conceptual Artist
Drawer
Illustrator
Painter
Photographer
Sculptor
Hartford
Connecticut
Sol Le Witt
Sol Lewitt
Solomon Sol LeWitt
Artists
Teach
Artist
Think
Thinking
Repeat
Repeats
Critics

More quotes by Sol LeWitt

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I didn't want to save art - I respected the older artists too much to think art needed saving. But I knew it was finished, even though, at that time, I didn't know what I would do.
Sol LeWitt
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In my case, I used the elements of these simple forms - square, cube, line and color - to produce logical systems. Most of these systems were finite that is, they were complete using all possible variations. This kept them simple.
Sol LeWitt
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Also, since art is a vehicle for the transmission of ideas through form, the reproduction of the form only reinforces the concept. It is the idea that is being reproduced. Anyone who understands the work of art owns it. We all own the Mona Lisa.
Sol LeWitt
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Conceptual art became the liberating idea that gave the art of the next 40 years its real impetus.
Sol LeWitt
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Most ideas that are successful are ludicrously simple. Successful ideas generally have the appearance of simplicity because they seem inevitable. In terms of idea the artist is free to even surprise himself. Ideas are discovered by intuition.
Sol LeWitt
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Obviously a drawing of a person is not a real person, but a drawing of a line is a real line.
Sol LeWitt
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Once it is out of his hand the artist has no control over the way a viewer will perceive the work. Different people will understand the same thing in a different way.
Sol LeWitt
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What the work of art looks like isn't too important.
Sol LeWitt
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Artists of many diverse types began using simple forms to their own ends.
Sol LeWitt
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When an artist uses a conceptual form of art, it means that all of the planning and decisions are made beforehand and the execution is a perfunctory affair. The idea becomes a machine that makes the art.
Sol LeWitt
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One should be intelligent enough to know when not to be too intellectual
Sol LeWitt
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New materials are one of the great afflictions of contemporary art. Some artists confuse new materials with new ideas.
Sol LeWitt
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Artists are mystics rather than rationalists. They leap to conclusions that logic cannot reach.
Sol LeWitt
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The system is the work of art the visual work of art is the proof of the System. The visual aspect can't be understood without understanding the system. It isn't what it looks like but what it is that is of basic importance.
Sol LeWitt
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Irrational judgements lead to new experience.
Sol LeWitt
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During the '70s I was interested in words and meaning as a way of making art.
Sol LeWitt
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Just as the development of earth art and installation art stemmed from the idea of taking art out of the galleries, the basis of my involvement with public art is a continuation of wall drawings.
Sol LeWitt
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Minimal art went nowhere.
Sol LeWitt
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All intervening steps, scribbles, sketches, drawings, failed work models, studies thoughts, conversations, are of interest. Those that show the thought process of the artist are sometimes more interesting than the final product
Sol LeWitt
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I wasn't really that interested in objects. I was interested in ideas.
Sol LeWitt