Sol LeWitt’s Black and White

From the series Five Forms Derived From a Cube, 1982.

PAUL CUMMINGS: Where is the accent in your name?

SOL LeWITT: It’s the last syllable — Le-WITT.

PC: It is? People argue about that all the time.

SL: It’s not a very interesting argument.

PC: Or really accurate. You were born when in Hartford, Connecticut?

SL: September 9, 1928.

From the series Five Forms Derived From a Cube, 1982.

PC: You grew up really in the late ’30’s then, the Depression years. Do you remember much of that?

From the series Five Forms Derived From a Cube, 1982.

SL: Sure, I remember quite well because we lived on certain streets and in certain areas in certain times. I don’t remember too much of Hartford because I was six when we left — but some things. But New Britain I remember quite well. I do remember living in the part of town that wasn’t really a very good part of town; it wasn’t so bad, really, but I remember that people were out of work. My aunt had a grocery store, and she used to give credit to people and had a hard time getting paid.

From the series Five Forms Derived From a Cube, 1982.

Bands of Lines One Inch Wide in Four Directions in Black & Gray, 1985.

“Sometimes just the idea of the white canvas, the kind of virginal space, would turn somebody on.”

From the series Doubles in Black and Gray, 1983.

PC: Was there an interest in art or music or culture at home? Or books around?

SL: Well, my father was a doctor, and he also invented a lot of surgical instruments. I made lots of drawing, humorous drawings. I just liked to do that. I think most of
us kids do like to draw.

Lines in Four Directions, 1993.

PC: Did you draw a lot as a child?

SL: I did as a child.

PC: Into grammar school, high school?

SL: Yeah. But not — by the time I got to high school, I didn’t do too much, but then I started again toward the end.

From the series Nine Geometric Figures (White Lines on Black), 1982.

From the series Nine Geometric Figures (White Lines on Black), 1982.

PC: Did you take any art classes? Were there any?

SL: I think I took only one year, I think, in high school.

PC: Was there
a museum in New Britain?

SL: There’s a small museum devoted mostly to American art, and they did have some very good things, late 19th century, early 20th century — 
Prendergast. They had several very nice things. I used
to go there,
I mean, once or twice. They never changed.

PC: Were the-
re any teachers
in high school that you remember, that you feel were influential?
SL: Well, there were certain teachers that I liked a great deal but not influential in any sense pertaining to art. I liked my Latin teacher very much and an English teacher very much.

PC: How did you come to go to Syracuse University?

SL: Well, I wanted to go to an art school, and my mother wanted me to get a degree, so it was kind of a —

PC: Compromise.

Black Bands in Two Directions, 1990.

SL: Compromise, right. An uncle of mine had gone there, and it was far enough away from home.

PC: And that was part of it? To get away from home also?

SL: That was part of it.

PC: So how did you like Syracuse? How long were you there?

SL: Four years. At the beginning I didn’t, and then after a while I liked it.

PC: What
didn’t you like about it?

SL: Well, I was quite young when I went — about sixteen. It was just after the war, and the veterans were coming back, so I felt slightly out of place, although there were other young students as well. It just took me quite awhile to get adjusted. And then I didn’t have much art training. That was very tough on me because it was a very
academic school. There was a lot of cast drawing and stuff like that — painting in a very academic way.
And I was never very good at that. So that all made it more than usually difficult. But then when I finally got on to things, things were a little more relaxed, and they changed the administration of the art school. It was a little freer, and then I liked it better, and I did better. Except that the head of the school did advise me to go find something else to do.
[Laughter]

Open Cube in White on Black, 2004.

Open Cube in Black on White, 2004.