Cool Hunting

Sol LeWitt's final triumph opened today at the MASS MoCA. Conceived by the artist before his death last year, he developed the idea with the Yale University Art Gallery, and then partnered with the MASS MOCA and the Williams College Museum of Art to create it. The 27,000 sq foot installation of his Wall Drawings comfortably lives on three floors in the newly renovated Building #7 at the MASS MoCA campus. The 105 large scale drawings are installed in a space renovated to LeWitt's specifications—and you'll probably discover that he was as gifted with spatial relationships as he was with painting. He chose this building—expertly renovated by Cambridge-based Bruner/Cott & Associates Architects and Planners—because of its many windows and the courtyard between it and one of the main buildings because he believed Building #7 would best accommodate his works.

I'll let the following images speak for themselves, but I will highly recommend an overnight or weekend trip to the North Adams/Williamstown area to see the retrospective. It's incredibly moving, and since it will be around for the next 25 years you have plenty of time to plan a trip.

In addition to its excellent website featuring views of the installation by grid or floorplan, you can also download a full series of Podcasts on the installation from iTunes.

The installation is also the inspiration for two new books: "Sol LeWitt: 100 Views," a catalog of the exhibition published by MASS MoCA and Yale University Press, which will be available in March 2009; and a three-volume Catalogue Raisonné published by the Yale University Art Gallery and Yale University Press and due out in 2010. For more information or to preorder, contact jjoseph [at] massmoca [dot] org.

The nearby Williams College Museum of Art has a parallel show, The ABCDs of Sol LeWitt, featuring works from his private collection. On view from today through 17 May 2009.

Sol LeWitt: A Wall Drawing Retrospective at the MASS MoCA
1040 MASS MoCA Way
North Adams, MA 01247 USA
Tel: +1 413.662.2111
Open now through 2033

Many more images after the jump.