Strict Beauty

A landmark survey of Sol LeWitts printmaking practice The conceptual artist Sol LeWitt (19282007) is best known for his programmatic wall drawings and modular structures, but alongside these works he generated more than 350 print projects, comprising thousands of lithographs, silkscreens, etchings, aquatints, woodcuts, and linocuts. This generously illustrated volume is the first to take a comprehensive look at LeWitts significant yet underexplored printmaking practice. Drawing together new archival research, interviews, and careful material and visual analyses, David S. Areford brilliantly situates LeWitts prints within the broader context of his serial-, system-, and rule-based approach to artmaking. The specific processes of print media, Areford argues, were perfectly suited for LeWitts particular brand of conceptual art, in which the idea becomes the machine that makes the art. With over 400 illustrations, many never before published, this study offers a more complete picture of LeWitts oeuvreand the essential place printmaking holds in it. The result will deepen the understanding not only of the variety of LeWitts output but of the genealogy of his distinct geometric and linear formal language. Published in association with the Williams College Museum of Art and New Britain Museum of American Art Exhibition Schedule: New Britain Museum of American Art (September 18, 2021January 9, 2022) Williams College Museum of Art (February 18June 12, 2022)