Sol LeWitt Original Painting Signed 1990 Untitled Gouache on Paper

Artist: Sol LeWitt
Title: Untitled
Medium: Original Gouache Painting on Paper
Sheet Size: 22" x 22"
Year: 1990
Inscription: Signed and dated "S. Lewitt 90" on front lower right
Documentation: Gallery Certificate of Authenticity

Sol LeWitt's untitled gouache of 1990 exemplifies the artist's continued exploration of color and structure during the final decades of his career, translating the systematic logic of his wall drawings into an intimate work on paper.

The composition is built over a fine, hand-ruled grid, a hybrid of drawing and painting characteristic of LeWitt's late output. A ground of blue gouache is applied first, its brushwork visible along the composition's edges, followed by a heavier, opaque layer of deep red that dominates the sheet's interior. Where the two pigments intersect and overlap, they resolve into a rich, muted violet, with passages of raw red and blue breaking through along the perimeter. The underlying grid, rendered in graphite or ink, remains faintly legible beneath the paint, imposing a structural order that stands in tension with the loose, gestural application of color above it—a dynamic recurring throughout LeWitt's late gouaches.

The work is signed and dated "S. LeWitt 90" in pencil at the lower right, consistent with the artist's standard practice of authenticating his works on paper, and is accompanied by a gallery Certificate of Authenticity.

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About Sol LeWitt

Sol LeWitt (1928–2007) was an American artist whose work formed a foundational link between Minimalism and Conceptual Art. Born in Hartford, Connecticut, to Jewish immigrant parents, he studied at Syracuse University, graduating in 1949. After military service in the Korean War, LeWitt moved to New York City in 1953, working as a graphic designer for architect I.M. Pei and later as a night receptionist at the Museum of Modern Art, a position that placed him among artists like Dan Flavin and Robert Ryman.

LeWitt became a central figure in the 1960s New York art scene. In 1967, he published "Paragraphs on Conceptual Art" in Artforum, articulating the movement's core tenet: that the idea behind a work matters more than its execution, which he treated as a perfunctory affair. This philosophy shaped his two primary bodies of work: three-dimensional "structures" and wall drawings.

Beginning in 1968, LeWitt developed wall drawings executed directly onto gallery walls according to written instructions and diagrams he devised but often had assistants execute. This practice separated authorship from physical production, raising lasting questions about originality and the artist's role. His structures—typically open modular grids and cubes in painted wood or aluminum—explored serial permutations of basic geometric forms.

Over his career, LeWitt produced more than 1,200 wall drawings and hundreds of structures, along with prints, gouaches, and artist's books. His work is held in major museum collections worldwide, including a dedicated long-term installation at MASS MoCA. He died in 2007, having profoundly influenced later generations of conceptual and minimalist artists.