Sol LeWitt in Connecticut
Kent, CT
30 May / 28 June
James Barron Art / Kent is pleased to announce an exhibition of works by Connecticut native Sol LeWitt. LeWitt’s Wall Drawing #701 will be on view for only the second time in over 20 years - this particular work was installed only once before, at the Museu Nacional de Belas Artes, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in 1992. “We are thrilled to bring it back to its home state of Connecticut”, says James Barron. Although LeWitt's wall drawings evoke the tradition of Italian fresco paintings, they have established a distinct tradition of their own, in which linear systems, determined by LeWitt in advance, are carried out by trained assistants based upon his instructions. In Wall Drawing 701, the artist created colors for his wall drawings by combining red, blue, yellow and grey in layers. Sometimes as many as 14 layers were used to create one color.
The main gallery will also feature a selection of LeWitt works on paper, dating from 1966 to 2003. These works show LeWitt’s wide range of mediums, from an early pencil on paper schematic rendering of cubes, done only a year after his first gallery exhibition, to folded works from the early 1970s, to late gouaches that explore the artist’s ideas of abstraction.
LeWitt was born in Hartford, Connecticut and moved to New Britain when he was 6 years old. As a child, his mother took him to art classes at the Wadsworth Atheneum. He moved to Spoletto, Italy, in the late 1970s and continued to divide his time between Italy, New York and Chester, Connecticut. “’He loved living in Connecticut,’ Carol LeWitt said of their shared home in the town of Chester (Wall Street Journal). “This exhibition is an homage to one of Connecticut’s most important artists on his home turf,” James Barron continues. “Our exhibition at James Barron Art / Kent continues our exploration into LeWitt’s work, from previous exhibitions at The Armory Show – Modern in 2011 and 2014. His work continues to fascinate us with its timelessness.”
Barron was based in New York and Rome, Italy prior to opening James Barron Art/Kent, and is a longtime participant in art fairs including The Armory Show – Modern and Art Miami.
View Sol LeWitt Wall Drawing #701 at James Barron Art
