Sol LeWitt morreu

Morreu Sol LeWitt, artista americano ligado ao movimento minimalista e uma das figuras mais importantes da arte americana do século XX.
Depois de uma longa batalha contra o cancro morreu no passado dia 8 de Abril em N.Y. com 78 anos.

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Em 1969 publicou Sentences on Conceptual Art texto determinante para a compreensão e desenvolvimento da arte contemporânea.

Sentences on Conceptual Art
by Sol Lewitt (1969)

1_Conceptual artists are mystics rather than rationalists. They leap to conclusions that logic cannot reach.
2_Rational judgements repeat rational judgements.
3_Irrational judgements lead to new experience.
4_Formal art is essentially rational.
5_Irrational thoughts should be followed absolutely and logically.
6_If the artist changes his mind midway through the execution of the piece he compromises the result and repeats past results.
7_The artist's will is secondary to the process he initiates from idea to completion. His wilfulness may only be ego.
8_When words such as painting and sculpture are used, they connote a whole tradition and imply a consequent acceptance of this tradition, thus placing limitations on the artist who would be reluctant to make art that goes beyond the limitations.
9_The concept and idea are different. The former implies a general direction while the latter is the component. Ideas implement the concept.
10_Ideas can be works of art; they are in a chain of development that may eventually find some form. All ideas need not be made physical.
11_Ideas do not necessarily proceed in logical order. They may set one off in unexpected directions, but an idea must necessarily be completed in the mind before the next one is formed.
12_For each work of art that becomes physical there are many variations that do not.
13_A work of art may be understood as a conductor from the artist's mind to the viewer's. But it may never reach the viewer, or it may never leave the artist's mind.
14_The words of one artist to another may induce an idea chain, if they share the same concept.
15_Since no form is intrinsically superior to another, the artist may use any form, from an expression of words (written or spoken) to physical reality, equally.
16_If words are used, and they proceed from ideas about art, then they are art and not literature; numbers are not mathematics.
17_All ideas are art if they are concerned with art and fall within the conventions of art.
18_One usually understands the art of the past by applying the convention of the present, thus misunderstanding the art of the past.
19_The conventions of art are altered by works of art.
20_Successful art changes our understanding of the conventions by altering our perceptions.
21_Perception of ideas leads to new ideas.
22_The artist cannot imagine his art, and cannot perceive it until it is complete.
23_The artist may misperceive (understand it differently from the artist) a work of art but still be set off in his own chain of thought by that misconstrual.
24_Perception is subjective.
25_The artist may not necessarily understand his own art. His perception is neither better nor worse than that of others.
26_An artist may perceive the art of others better than his own.
27_The concept of a work of art may involve the matter of the piece or the process in which it is made.
28_Once the idea of the piece is established in the artist's mind and the final form is decided, the process is carried out blindly. There are many side effects that the artist cannot imagine. These may be used as ideas for new works.
29_The process is mechanical and should not be tampered with. It should run its course.
30_There are many elements involved in a work of art. The most important are the most obvious.
31_If an artist uses the same form in a group of works, and changes the material, one would assume the artist's concept involved the material.
32_Banal ideas cannot be rescued by beautiful execution.
33_It is difficult to bungle a good idea.
34_When an artist learns his craft too well he makes slick art.
35_These sentences comment on art, but are not art.
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First published in 0-9 (New York), 1969, and Art-Language (England), May 1969