Post by Kemi Adeyemi-Wilson

#Notes2Self - Keeping It Simple #MondayMotivation This weekend had the earthquake in Haiti, the fall of Afghanistan to the Taliban, fires in some parts of the world, the delta variant and more It’s a lot. It can also drive us to despair. We need to empathise and grieve the injustice and the sickness, the lives lost and people in need. Alas, it’s also Monday and we need a drive for the new week so perhaps some pops of colour as well as cautious but regular walks in the sunshine outdoors, in a park if possible because there is something about being in nature. Once the pandemic hit, many of us ventured inside and don’t want to come out anytime soon especially with wave after wave of Covid in quick succession. Today we have Sol Lewitt, the multi disciplinary visual artist, who executed his work using simple shapes and colours and on his drafting table turned these into mesmerising wall art, paintings, drawings and sculptures and the collaborated with a team of artists and craftsmen who work together to bring these to life. So key take aways… 1. Keep it simple to start with. 2. Build up from basic ideas. 3. Play around with ideas from different disciplines sometimes, thinking out of the box. 4. Share your ideas and vision with others. 5. Be respectful of the contribution of others. 6. Collaboration is Key. No one is an Island. We often need others to execute our ideas. Paula Cooper Galleries says: ‘Sol LeWitt Over a multifaceted career that spanned more than five decades, Sol LeWitt executed hundreds of wall drawings, scores of sculptures, and countless drawings, prints, photographs, and books. His art was variously sumptuous, obsessive, inventive, gentle. By the end of his career, his art was monumental and, on several occasions, when it wasn’t bright and colorful, expressed an elegiac quality.’ https://lnkd.in/damCPr8 ‘Sol LeWitt was born on September 9th, 1928 in Hartford, Connecticut to Eastern European immigrants. His father, a doctor and inventor, died when he was 6. Soon after, he moved with his mother, a nurse, to live with an aunt in New Britain, Connecticut. His mother took him to art classes at the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art in Hartford and he would draw on wrapping paper from his aunt’s grocery store. LeWitt received a BFA from Syracuse University 1949... In 1953, he moved to #NewYorkCity where he studied at the Cartoonists and Illustrators School (now the School of Visual Arts)... In 1960, he took an entry-level job at The Museum of Modern Art where he met Dan Flavin, Robert Ryman… Sol LeWitt executed his 1st #WallDrawing in 1968 at Paula Cooper Gallery in New York. Until 2033, LeWitt’s wall drawings are the subject of a solo exhibition titled Sol LeWitt: A Wall Drawing Retrospective at the MASSACHUSETTS MUSEUM OF CONTEMPORARY ART CULTURAL DEVELOPMENT COMMISSION.’ All images belong to the Artist and have been sourced for educational purposes. #SolLewitt #ArtCanHeal