April 25 – May 30, 2026
Sol LeWitt: Open Cube in Color on Color
Galerie Boisserée
In Person Viewing:
Drususgasse 7-11
D – 50667 Cologne
Online Viewing:
https://www.galerie-boisseree.com/en/artists/sol-lewitt.html
Sol LeWitt was born in 1928 in Hartford, Connecticut, USA. After completing his studies and an apprenticeship as an illustrator, he initially worked as a graphic designer from the mid-1950s before joining the Museum of Modern Art in New York. During this period, he met important contemporaries such as Dan Flavin, Robert Ryman, and Hanne Darboven. He drew inspiration from Constructivism, the Bauhaus, and the Dutch art movement De Stijl. He adopted the principles of these various forms of geometric abstraction into his work and developed them further in his own diverse variations. Together with Dan Flavin and Donald Judd, LeWitt is regarded as one of the founders of Conceptual Art and Minimal Art. Above all, he considered his sculptural work to be conceptual in nature.
LeWitt’s first solo exhibition took place as early as 1965. In addition to paintings and drawings, he worked primarily as a sculptor, and from the late 1960s onward he also created murals. Around 1970, his exploration of printmaking techniques greatly expanded the scope of his artistic practice. His works are based on mathematical principles, particularly with regard to the proportional relationships within his sculptures. He explored all fundamental geometric forms, most notably the square and the cube, the latter becoming a defining element of both his sculptures, “Cubes”, and his two-dimensional works. This simple form allowed him to create highly complex, systematically repeating arrangements, both in black or white and, later, in vibrant color. His earlier works were characterised primarily by the color white, but this was to change noticeably after he spent several years in Italy. In the early 1980s, LeWitt settled in Spoleto, Italy, where he encountered the rich color palettes of Giotto’s and Masaccio’s frescoes. After returning to the United States, Sol LeWitt began working in a brilliant variety of colours that was new to his oeuvre. Whilst he had previously explored the relationship between negative and positive space in a sculpture through his fundamental Open Cube sculptures, he now expanded his square-based motifs to investigate the expressive potential of color.
The series “Open Cube in Color on Color” comprising thirty color linocuts, demonstrates this remarkable diversity with striking clarity. In each composition, the open cube appears in a different variation, rendered in vivid colors against contrasting backgrounds. The result is a vibrant and dynamic visual experience. Through the systematic combination of form and color, LeWitt explores how minimal variations can alter and influence the viewer’s perception of the same fundamental geometric principle. The series represents the culmination of Sol LeWitt’s lifelong engagement with geometry, variation, and color.
