"Whether clustered in groups of a few units or multiplied many t.mes s in intricate, lacelike configurations, as in later pieces, the open cube has become a staple of the Lewitt oeuvre.”
A consummate example of Sol LeWitt’s lifelong Minimalist inquiry, Hanging Structure 24 D from 1991 epitomizes the artist’s distinct visual language and uses the cube as a device to amplify and explore the elegantly refined poetry of line, form, and repetition. In the early 1960's, LeWitt first began to create his "structures," a term he used to describe his three-dimensional work which suggests these works hold more in common with architecture than carved or molded statuary. By adopting a reduced visual vocabulary of basic geometric forms, works such as Hanging Structure 24 D present cubic modules as tools of expression for conceptual premise. At once highlighting the juxtaposition between light and shadow and accentuating geometry itself, the structure's open grid framework emphasizes the symmetry and seriality of both the individual cubes and the collects ive unit. Although grounded within a Minimalist aesthetic, Hanging Structure 24 D goes beyond the minimal, becoming a conceptual investigation of the convergence of spatial and temporal realities.
In 1955, when the artist was just 27 years old and first exploring a professional interest in the visual arts, LeWitt took a job as a graphic designer in the office of the renowned architect I.M. Pei. Although the present work was produced years later, it maintains many of the architectural influences that LeWitt was surrounded by during those formative years of his early artistic career. Just as an architect drafts his blueprints with profound authority, LeWitt strongly believed that the idea preceding the physical construction of an artwork was of primary importance. His practice followed a mathematical consciousness in addition to an intuitive creative process which resulted in a uniquely meditative aesthetic experience for the artist and viewer alike.
LeWitt made his first open, modular structures exploring permutations of the grid and the cube in 1964, painting them white as to make the work more visually integrated with the wall or room. Lewitt maintained a consistent ratio of 1:8.5 between the material, either wood or metal, and the spaces in between to capture a structural claritys and simplicity that would allow perception to be revealed at its most fundamental basis. In other words, in Lewitt’s dedication to repetition and synonymous scale, the artist makes us aware of our looking and cognitive understanding of the objects before us. Indeed, the viewer’s physical movement and active process of perception are integral to the understanding and experience of the work of art. LeWitt desired that his works no longer be self-contained, self-sufficient objects, but rather pieces that would mediate between environment, space, and the viewer’s movement and vision.
"Compared to any other three-dimensional form, the cube lacks any aggressive force, implies no motion, and is least emotive. Therefore it is the best form to use as a basic unit for any more elaborate function, the grammatical device from which the work may proceed.”
Exemplifying the core theses of Minimalist art, Hanging Structure 24 D offers an integral framework, engaging all aspects of space as it boldly descends from above. Akin to a stalactite, the present work mirrors the phenomenon of the Fibonacci sequence, where art imitates and aligns with mathematical structures to achieve perfect harmony. Through the serialization of cubes, LeWitt creates a participatory viewing experience in which his audience acknowledges this repetitive harmony and is able to complete the cascading structure conceptually. As the density of squares begins to decrease, our mind fills in the gaps, engaging in a playful illusion. As each cubic addition progresses towards the floor, Hanging Structure 24 D prompts a deep meditation on logic and foregrounds Lewitt’s invention of Minimalist objecthood; it is with revered discipline that Lewitt constructs these exquisite complexities from the simplest of forms. As described by Dean Swanson, “whether clustered in groups of a few units or multiplied many t.mes s in intricate, lacelike configurations, as in later pieces, the open cube has become a staple of the Lewitt oeuvre.” (Dean Swanson, “Structure and Line,” Exh. Cat., Madison Museum of Contemporary Art (and traveling), LeWitt x 2, 2006 - 2008, p. 19) The radical and rationalist restraint in Hanging Structure 24 D emphasizes the core principles of art and design and the infinite possibilities of arrangement and manipulation that the basic cubic form offers an artist.
Alongside contemporaries such as Carl Andre and Dan Flavin, Sol Levitt remains celebrated as a pioneering figure of Minimalism for privileging the concept of an artwork above its material execution, which drew him to radically prioritize the structure of art itself and materialize the arrangement of form over opticality. In 1966, the artist.mes l Bochner reflected in regard to LeWitt's modular cubes, "Old art attempted to make the non-visible (energy, feelings) visual (marks). New art is attempting to make the non-visual (mathematics) visible (concrete)." (Mel Bochner, "Primary Structures," Arts Magazine, New York, June 1966, p. 34) A paragon of LeWitt’s use of the cube as an essential formal device in his sculptures, Hanging Structure 24 D remarkably exemplifies the artist’s revolutionary and innovative contributions to twentieth century art history.
