Sol LeWitt Quotes
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Artists are mystics rather than rationalists. They leap to conclusions that logic cannot reach.
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When words such as painting and sculpture are used, they connote a whole tradition and imply a consequent acceptance of this tradition, thus placing limitations on the artist who would be reluctant to make art that goes beyond the limitations.
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What the work of art looks like isn't too important. It has to look like something if it has a physical form. No matter what form it may finally have it must begin with an idea. It is the process of conception and realization with which the artist is concerned.
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The narrative of serial art works more like music than like literature.
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Ideas alone can be works of art; they are in a chain of development that may eventually find some form. All ideas need not be made physical.
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When artists make art, they shouldn't question whether it is permissible to do one thing or another.
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I was not interested in irony; I wanted to emphasize the primacy of the idea in making art
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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.
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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.
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Every generation renews itself in its own way; there's always a reaction against whatever is standard.
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The most interesting characteristic of the cube is that it is relatively uninteresting. Compared to any other three-dimensional form, the cube lacks any aggressive force, implies no motion, and is least emotive. Therefore, it is the best form to use as a basic unit for any more elaborate function, the grammatical device from which the work may proceed.
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New materials are one of the great afflictions of contemporary art. Some artists confuse new materials with new ideas.
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The artist’s aim is not to instruct the viewer, but to give information, whether the viewer understands the information is incidental to the artist.
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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.
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Conceptual art became the liberating idea that gave the art of the next 40 years its real impetus.
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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.
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What the work of art looks like isn't too important.
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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.
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A work of art may be understood as a conductor from the artist's mind to the viewer's. But it may never reach the viewer, or it may never leave the artist's mind.
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I believe that the artist's involvement in the capitalist structure is disadvantageous to the artist and forces him to produce objects in order to live.
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Most ideas that are successful are ludicrously simple
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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.
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Irrational judgements lead to new experience.
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Your work isn't a high stakes, nail-biting professional challenge. It's a form of play. Lighten up and have fun with it.
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Don’t worry about cool, make your own uncool.
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Unless you're involved with thinking about what you're doing, you end up doing the same thing over and over, and that becomes tedious and, in the end, defeating.
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Formal art is essentially rational.
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Conceptual art is only good if the idea is good.
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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.
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Minimal art went nowhere.
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