American artist Sol LeWitt’s interest in analyzing pure geometric forms often aligns him with Minimalism, but his innovative theories also place him at the forefront of what came to be known as Conceptual art. Working with simple shapes like squares, circles, and triangles, LeWitt’s work examines the very nature of art, shifting the emphasis from execution to idea. His famous dictum, “The idea becomes a machine that makes the art,” quickly became artistic gospel—both revered and renounced—after he wrote the statement in his essay “Paragraphs on Conceptual Art,” published in Artforum in 1967. LeWitt first gained notoriety in the 1960s for sculptures built according to simple mathematical progressions that could be understood and executed by anyone. These works were made with common materials and a limited color palette of red, blue, yellow, and black, such as Run IV, 1962, in Glenstone’s collection.

–Elijah Majeski, from the Glenstone Field Guide