|Lewitt Wall Drawing 811 as drafted at Franklin Furnace
Instructions faxed by LeWitt to Franklin Furnace for Drafters
of Wall Drawing 811
Sol LeWitt from Catalogue of Pasadena Art Museum Show, Nov. 17, 1970 - Jan. 3, 1971: The draftsman and the wall enter a dialogue. The draftsman becomes bored but later through this meaningless activity finds peace or misery. The lines on the wall are the residue of this process. Each line is as important as each other line. All of the lines have become one thing. The viewer of the lines can only see lines on a wall. They are meaningless. That is art. (From Pasadena catalogue.) The artists conceives and plans the wall drawing. It is realized by draftsmen. (The artist can act as his own draftsman.) The plan, written, spoken or a drawing, is interpreted by the draftsman. There are decisions which the draftsman makes, within the plan, as part of the plan. Each individual, being unique, given the same instructions would carry them out differently. He would understand them differently. The artist must allow various interpretations of his plan. The draftsman perceives the artist's plan, then reorders it to his own experience and understanding. The draftsman's contributions are unforeseen by the artist, even if he, the artist, is the draftsman. Even if the same draftsman followed the same plan twice, there would be two different works of art. No one can do the same thing twice. The artist and the draftsman become collaborators in making the art. Each person draws a line differently and each person understands words differently. Neither lines nor words are ideas. They are the means by which ideas are conveyed. The wall drawing is the artist's art, as long as the plan is not violated. If it is, then the draftsman becomes the artist and the drawing would be his work of art, but that art is a parody of the original concept. The draftsman may make errors in following the plan without compromising the plan. All wall drawings contain errors. They are part of the work. The plan exists as an idea but needs to be put into its optimum form. Ideas of wall drawings alone are contradictions of the idea of wall drawings. The explicit plans should accompany the finished wall drawing. They are of importance. (from Art Now, vol. 3, no. 2, 1971.)
1. Conceptual Artists are mystics rather than rationalists. They leap to conclusions that logic cannot reach. 2. Rational judgments repeat rational judgments. 3. Illogical judgments lead to new experience. 4. Formal Art is essentially rational. 5. Irrational thoughts should be followed absolutely and logically. 6. If the artists changes his mind midway through the execution of the piece he compromises the result and repeats past results. 7. The artist's will is secondary to the process that he initiates from idea to completion. His willfulness may be only ego. 8. When words such as painting and sculpture are used, they connote a whole tradition and imply a consequent acceptance of this tradition, thus placing limitations on the artist who would be reluctant to make art that goes beyond the limitations. 9. The concept and the idea are different. The former implies a general direction while the latter are the components. Ideas implement the concept. 10. Ideas alone can be works of art; they are in a chain of development that may eventually find some form. All ideas need not be made physical. 11. Ideas do not necessarily proceed in logical order. They may set one off in unexpected directions but an idea must necessarily be completed in the mind before the next one is formed. 12. For each work of art that becomes physical there are many variations that do not. 13. A work of art may be understood as a conductor from the artist's mind to the viewer's. But it may never reach the viewer, or it may never leave the artist's mind. 14. The words of one artist to another may induce an idea chain, if they share the same concept. 15. Since no form is intrinsically superior to another, the artist may use any form, from an expression of words (written or spoken) to physical reality, equally. 16. If words are used, and they proceed from ideas about art, then they are art and not literature; numbers are not mathematics. 17. All ideas are art if they are concerned with art and fall within the conventions of art. 18. One usually understands the art of the past by applying the conventions of the present thus misunderstanding the art of the past. 19. The conventions of art are altered by works of art. 20. Successful art changes our understanding of the conventions by altering our perceptions. 21. Perception of ideas leads to new ideas. 22. The artist cannot imagine his art, and cannot perceive it until it is complete. 23. One artist may mis-perceive (understand it differently than the artist) a work of art but still be set off in his own chain of thought by that misconstrual. 24. Perception is subjective. 25. The artist may not necessarily understand his own art. His perception is neither better nor worse than that of others. 26. An artist may perceive the art of others better than his own. 27. The concept of a work of art may involve the matter of the piece or the process in which it is made. 28. Once the idea of the piece is established in the artist's mind and the final form is decided, the process is carried out blindly. There are many side-effects that the artist cannot imagine. These may be used as ideas for new works. 29. The process is mechanical and should not be tampered with. It should run its course. 30. There are many elements involved in a work of art. The most important are the most obvious. 31. If an artist uses the same form in a group of works, and changes the material, one would assume the artist's concept involved the material. 32. Banal ideas cannot be rescued by beautiful execution. 33. It is difficult to bungle a good idea. 34. When an artist learns his craft too well he makes slick art. 35. These sentences comment on art, but are not art.