Sol Lewitt Research

In looking for artists to study I found that sculpture was the way to go rather than 2D paintings as the subject matter I'm photographing is more three dimensional. I want to start taking photographs that are more minimal but still have interesting lines, I'm going to start focusing on photographing stairs as my main subject matter as they are an everyday structure and always contain different interpretations of the same fundamental shapes. I tried to find a contemporary artist that creates geometric work and I came across the work of Sol Lewitt. Many artists in the 1960's we using none traditional materials so create art and re invent art moving away from European tradition and making new 'American' art. Lewitt has influenced by the sequential photographs by Eadweard Muybridge presented in a grid formation. 

While researching Lewitt I came across his sculptures 'Incomplete Open Cubes'. Lewitt wanted to create something that initially looks chaotic however when you see the sculptures in different lines of sight they become orderly and you 'untangle the puzzle'. Individually the incomplete cubes are brilliant pieces of minimalist sculpture and although each sculpture is based on a cube they are all different. 122 individual cube variations make up the complete piece, individually the sculptures work well but they work better when placed in context with the other 121 as they create an overall idea. For my gallery piece I think I will present 8 or 10 photographs as a set because the photographs will work much better in narrative form along side other images than if they were presented individually, the photographs will all most likely contain steps but it is how different architectures have interpreted that shape that will come out in my photographs and how something as simple as a staircase that you see everyday can contain these beautiful shapes and lines. From Lewitt's work I have learned that you can present different versions of the same thing and make it interesting when presented as a narrative like the individual cube sculptures when presented as a set express a larger interesting idea.