Sol LeWitt: The Truth is Funny
Lower Gallery

January 28 - March 19, 2022

Exhibition Catalog

Our exhibition focuses on works from Sol LeWitt's R Series, which the artist created by tearing, folding, and cutting. Sometimes inscribed "Not to be sold for more than $100," these works were originally a reaction to LeWitt's growing success with his Wall Drawings, and demonstrate the seeming contradiction of LeWitt's conceptual process and his irreverent wit.

R78 and Fold Drawing are both dated October 6, 1972 and were executed in Bern, Switzerland on the day of the opening of LeWitt's first major museum exhibition at the Kunsthalle Bern. They are emblematic of two of the primary modes of creation in LeWitt’s R Series: folding and ripping. This is the first time both works have been exhibited together.

"These are ways of using language to describe a precise location, like geography. I think of them as my poetry."
Sol LeWitt

Also featured is R708, a superb example of LeWitt's map pieces. In these works, LeWitt cut out segments on a map dictated by specific points that held personal significance.

R708 is inscribed:
"Area of London between the Lisson Gallery the Nigel
Greenwood Gallery and the Tate Gallery removed"

Zoom: Dieter Schwarz

We were thrilled to host a Zoom conversation with curator, author, and consultant Dieter Schwarz, whose 2020 book Folds & Rips 1966-1980 (Walther König) compiled his extensive research into LeWitt's R Series.