I recently stumbled upon LeWitt’s work appearing on the
When I gazed at this "structure" (a term LeWitt preferred instead of
Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art’s (MassMoCA)
"sculpture"), I did not see art, but instead, mathematics, and a lot of
website and was immediately captivated by his Wall Drawing 419
it! I saw a coordinate grid, divided into four quadrants, in which
(figure 1).
lines (LeWitt’s “bands”) of varying slope and color were graphed.
Instantaneously, my mathematics teacher-brain was churning at
warp speed, formulating how this piece of art could serve as the
focal point to a mathematics lesson. Like a Conceptual artist, I
conceived a brilliant idea. And, like a Conceptual artist, I would
identify trained artists, that is, students, to execute it.
Two weeks later, I was blessed to be co-teaching this exciting
integrated lesson to two classes of eighth grade algebra students,
who had just studied linear equations. At the start of class, the
algebra teacher and I displayed on the whiteboard several pieces
of Sol LeWitt’s art for her students to view, allowing them ample
time to observe each work. We encouraged the students to assess
and then verbally share how well they thought each of the wall
drawings embodied LeWitt’s concept, which was articulated to the
Figure 1. LeWitt’s Wall Drawing 419. (Image retrieved from massmoca.org)
LeWitt’s concept for this work was as follows:
The wall is bordered and divided horizontally and vertically into four
equal parts with a 6-inch (15 cm) black ink band. Each quarter has
alternating parallel 6-inch (15 cm) bands of white and color ink
bands. Upper left: gray; upper right: yellow; lower left: red; lower
right: blue.
right of each image. It was clear that the students were also
fascinated and even puzzled by the notion of using trained artists to
carry out one’s vision. Upon viewing some of LeWitt’s art,
discussions among the students ensued as to whether different
groups of trained artists would produce works that varied in
appearance, despite each group staying true to LeWitt’s stated
concept. For example, one eighth grader articulated how LeWitt’s
Wall Drawing 419 may have looked quite different from the image
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