"Curvy Brushstrokes" Large etching with aquatint, framed
By Sol LeWitt
Located in San Francisco, CA
This artwork titled "Curvy Brushstrokes" 1997 is a colors etching with sugar lift aquatint on Somerset textured white paper by renown artist Sol (Solomon) LeWitt, 1928-2007. It is hand signed and numbered 1/15 in pencil by the artist. The image size is 29.90 x 39.90 inches, paper sheet size is 40.5 x 49.80 inches, framed size is 43.75 x 53 inches. Published by Crown Point Press, San Francisco, printed by Dana Sywulak, assisted by Dena Schneleit, Mary Andrews and Case Hudson at Crown Press, San Francisco. Referenced and pictured in the artist's catalogue raisonne, plate #1997.07. Custom framed in a wooden black frame, floated on white backing, with white spacer. It is in excellent condition, the frame has minor very small restorations, practically invisible. About the artist: Known for his modular white cube sculpture, geometric drawings and abstract design paintings including many wall paintings that took teams of people to execute, Sol LeWitt was a major promoter of dominant post World War II Conceptualism and Minimalism. He used geometric shapes and lines to challenge his viewers, and sometimes they seemed logical and other times they seemed to have no basis in either reason or reality. Although he was highly active in New York City, he shied away from any semblance of art celebrity life style and spent much of his later life working from his home and studio in Chester, Connecticut. At the beginning of his career when he was gaining notoriety, conservative critics panned him fiercely. Seeking to get away from the frenetic activity of the New York art scene, he went to Spoleto, Italy in the 1980s and remained there for many years. The influence of Italian culture seemed to lend a new opulent quality to his work, and also the launching of his wall paintings, which he called drawings even though they were done with acrylic paint. "He began making colored flagstone patterns, spiky sculptural blobs and ribbons of color, like streamers on New Year's Eve, often as enormous decorations for buildings around the world. It was if he had devised a latter-day kind of Abstract Expressionism . . ." (Kimmelman) Of his personal modesty it was written: "He tried to suppress all interest in him as opposed to his work; he turned down awards and was camera-shy and reluctant to grant interviews. He particularly disliked the prospect of having his photograph in the newspaper." (Kimmelman) Sol LeWitt was born in Hartford, Connecticut to Russian immigrant parents. His father, a doctor, died when Sol was age six, and he and his mother then went to live with an aunt in New Britain, Connecticut. His mother encouraged his art talent, and enrolled him in classes at the Wadsworth Atheneum. LeWitt's subsequent residence in Chester, after he was a well-known artist, was near the Atheneum, and he became a strong supporter of that institution including the securing of a long time loan to it of a highly prestigious private collection of modern art. LeWitt earned a B.F.A. degree from Syracuse University in 1949, and then was drafted in the Korean War. His special assignment was making posters for the Special Services. From 1955 to 1956, he worked as a graphic designer for architect I.M. Pei, who was beginning his career. He also did pasteups for Seventeen magazine...
Late 20th Century Abstract Art by Medium: Etching
Etching, Aquatint
