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Sol LeWitt: Incomplete Open Cubes

Conceptual Art


<I>Eight-Part Variations from</I><BR><I>Schematic Drawings for</I> <BR><I>Incomplete Open Cubes</I>
Detail of cat. no. 33,
Eight-Part Variations from
Schematic Drawings for
Incomplete Open Cubes,
1974. Ink and pencil on
vellum. 131 parts, each
12 x 12 in. Wadsworth
Atheneum Museum of Art,
Hartford, CT. The Douglas
Tracy Smith and Dorothy
Potter Smith Fund, and
partial gift of Carol and
Sol LeWitt.

Variation

When I finally figured it out, I wanted to show it so it explains itself the best way. The book was one way, the three-dimensional structures were another, and the schematic drawings were another.
--Sol LeWitt, 2000

The full title of this work, Variations of Incomplete Open Cubes, suggests an analogy to music where "theme and variations" is a classic compositional technique. Similarly, LeWitt's basic theme is stated and then elaborated in ways that are at once surprising and harmonious. The incremental variation from one cube to another is subtle, yet the resulting forms are disparate in character. Through the conceptual process and the variations it produces, LeWitt has demonstrated the underlying complexity of the cube.

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