Sol LeWitt. Between The Lines

Occupying the three floors of Casa Parravicini and Palazzo Visconti, restored by Gae Aulenti in 1991, the Foundation, since its opening in 2015, exhibited numerous established and emerging artists, as well as, innovative figures, forgotten by the history of art, who merit being rediscovered.

Sol LeWitt is the key figure to conceptual art and, perhaps one of its most radical exponents. Known for having eliminated the artistic gesture from the artwork and reduced it to its purest form – the idea, LeWitt’s works exist today as instructions, the execution of which can theoretically be entrusted to anyone.

Ten years since the passing away of the artist, the Fondazione hosts an exhibition which suggests a new way to see LeWitt and to work with his legacy. LeWitt loved Italy and spent significant amount of time living and working in this country. There is a kind of commonplace, whereby LeWitt’s most beautiful wall drawings are executed on the walls of most beautiful palaces. Though Casa Parravicini is a an example of outstanding XV cent architecture, Gae Aulenti’s intervention has reduced the interior to a clean slate with the exception of one room. This condition allowed the curatorial and design team to experiment more explicitly with blurring the relationship between the artwork and its support.

The exposition challenges the idea that LeWitt’s work must adapt to the architecture of the museum. The seven Wall Drawings, 16 sculptures and Autobiography photo album installed across the three floors of Casa Parravicini establish a complex and dynamic dialogue with architecture of the palace, carefully manipulated to generate new readings of LeWitt’s oeuvre.

Departing from the most classical execution of the Wall Drawing 263 in the first room, the architectural conditions are adjusted with the growing degree of radicality. Corners are cancelled to blur the edge between the wall and the ceiling, creating a curved support for the Wall Drawing 1267 (Scribbles). A fragment of an American gallery is forced within a room to reproduce the conditions of the first execution of the Wall Drawing 123. A sculptural multifaceted object becomes the support for the same drawing (Wall Drawing 150) reproduced 6 times on the 6 sides, illustrating how the same instruction can produce different results depending on the dimensions of the surface. Sculptures/structures are placed in the smallest rooms compressing and deforming the space. And finally, a large mirror is installed in the baroque room to superimpose the Wall Drawing 1104 and the playful antique ornament on the walls.

The genius of LeWitt’s idea is the strive for immortality. Generations of artists will reproduce and inevitably interpret his Wall Drawings. “Between the Lines” was an attempt to make a meaningful contribution to this process.