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Like no other artist of his generation, he thus gave an important impetus for the idea of the work of art as a concept. In this way the classical concept of authorship was finally revoked, thereby opening up a new field of possibilities for artistic interventions and manifestations. For Sol LeWitt, minimalism and concept do not mean a reduction of possibilities, but an endless variation of forms and images in the true sense of the word.
For the Kunsthaus he places himself at the beginning of a discourse with space and its perception. In abstraction according to Mondrian, aspects of the construction of images and illusion are addressed whilst, in minimalism, abstraction is concrete materialism. The object is perceived 1:1 in its physical existence, any significance is denied and tautology made the principle. In this clearly defined space, the beholder becomes the active subject, and it is this very space that becomes the metric for maneuver. Here is where our interest in Sol LeWitt’s work sets in. The large-format stone sculpture, the artist’s designs for Space 01 in the Kunsthaus, surveys the room and subjects it to a perceptive experiment.
The visitor experiences the massive wall as both built architecture, demarcation between inside and outside, and as minimalist sculpture and tactile object.
For Sol LeWitt the word perception has the meaning of the apprehension of the sense data, the objective understanding of the idea and simultaneously a subjective interpretation of both.