Sol LeWitt
Serial Project No. 1 (ABCD)

1966
Baked enamel on steel units over baked enamel on aluminum
22,5 x 175 x 175 cm
Contemporary Art Collection, permanent loan Westfälisches Landesmuseum für Kultur und Kunstgeschichte, Münster

Serial Project, I (ABCD) combines and recombines open and closed enameled aluminum squares, cubes, and extensions of these shapes, all laid out in a grid that rests on the floor. Both intricate and methodical, the sculpture’s system produces a visual field that gives viewers all the information they need to unravel its logic.

Reacting against the heroic ideals that guided much postwar American painting, LeWitt advocated for an art that was, he said, “mentally interesting” but “emotionally dry.” Color, line, and form, he believed, could be handled objectively, as elementary visual units rather than expressive devices. He turned to modular and serial permutation to define and manifest these concepts.

In a text accompanying this work, LeWitt outlined his highly methodical approach: “The aim of the artist would not be to instruct the viewer but to give him information. Whether the viewer understands this information is incidental to the artist; he cannot foresee the understanding of all his viewers. He would follow his predetermined premise to its conclusion avoiding subjectivity. Chance, taste, or unconsciously remembered forms would play no part in the outcome. The serial artist does not attempt to produce a beautiful or mysterious object but functions merely as a clerk cataloging the results of his premise.”