Wall Drawing #357
A 12-in (30-cm) grid covering the black wall. Within each 12-inch (30-cm) square, one arc from the midpoint of one side (the direction of the arcs and their placement are determined by the drafter).
White crayon, black pencil grid, black wall
First drawn by: Jo Watanabe
First installation: Zabriskie Gallery, New York, November 1981
Installation at New York City Center drawn by Lacey Fekishazy, Sarah Heinemann, and Gabriel Hurier
The LeWitt Estate and Paula Cooper Gallery, New York. Courtesy Paula Cooper Gallery, New York.
New York City Center is honored to install a wall drawing by the renowned American artist Sol LeWitt in celebration of the performance on our stage in October 2023 of Lucinda Childs’s masterwork, Dance (1979), by the Lyon Opera Ballet.
LeWitt was a pioneer and leading figure of the Minimal and Conceptual Art movements. He asserted that the artist is a generator of ideas and that the idea itself could be the work of art. His work ranged from sculpture, painting, and drawing to conceptual pieces that existed only as ideas or as components of the artistic process itself.
Wall Drawing #357, which is a development of the arc motif, was first made in November 1981 and is a tribute to choreographer Lucinda Childs. The arc, together with the straight line and the diagonal, comprise the formal range of her minimalist dances.
Lucinda Childs is known for her collaborations with visual artists, composers, directors, and designers such as John Adams, Philip Glass, Sol LeWitt, Peter Sellars, and Robert Wilson. Dance, encompassing three dances performed together without intermission, is set to the music of Phillip Glass with Sol LeWitt’s black-and-white film projected in front of the stage, creating instantaneous layerings of time.
LeWitt made his first-ever wall drawing for Paula Cooper Gallery in 1968, and it was considered radical, in part because this innovative form of drawing was intentionally temporary and often executed not just by LeWitt but also by other artists he invited to assist him. Each wall drawing begins as a set of instructions or a simple diagram to be followed. The drawing dimensions are variable to the size of the wall, and LeWitt entrusted many decisions in the execution of his work to the drafters.
LeWitt has been the subject of numerous one-artist exhibitions and his work is held in public collections worldwide. In 2008, MASS MoCA opened Sol LeWitt: A Wall Drawing Retrospective, which will remain on view through 2033.
This is the first time this wall drawing has appeared in New York City since its initial installation at Zabriskie Gallery in 1981. It will remain on view at New York City Center until the fall of 2026.