email Join our email list! divider Register Login cartCart
Icarus Film
Films from independent
producers worldwide.
32 Court Street, Brooklyn, NY 11201divider(718) 488 8900
Sol LeWitt

A film by Chris Teerink

 Text Size  Increase Font Size   Decrease Font Size   divider Printable VersionPrintable Version

"Conceptual artists leap to conclusions logic cannot reach," Sol LeWitt (1928-2007) said in a rare audio-interview from 1974. Notoriously camera-shy, Lewitt refused awards and rarely granted interviews, yet in Chris Teerink's sensitive cinematic portrait, the pioneering conceptual American artist comes alive.

LeWitt's artwork can be seen as obsession pushed to the limit of paradox and absurdity: simple ideas, communicated simply-often with a set of instructions sent by fax-lead to overwhelming visual and intellectual complexity. For example, to create Wall drawing #801: Spiral, a white line spirals down the black wall of a cupola 3.2 miles long. The film documents the piece's 2011 installation in Maastricht, the Netherlands, which takes eight assistants 30 days to complete. When the painstaking work is done and the scaffolding taken away, the result is the transformative.

Using extensive interviews and documentation of artwork installed around the world, in the acclaimed documentary Sol LeWitt, director Chris Teerink explores the artist's work and philosophy.

"Eye-catching and informative... Both an accessible introduction and a piece of advanced criticism. "Sol LeWitt" will help you understand the art it depicts and allow you to appreciate those aspects of it that surpass understanding." —A.O. Scott, The New York Times

"Chris Teerink's superb film documents the work of artist Sol LeWitt, whose legacy lies not only in past accomplishments, but in the work he left for others to complete." Chuck Wilson, The Village Voice

"An elegant meditation on one of the most distinctive bodies of work in contemporary art." John DeFore, The Hollywood Reporter

"Set to a marvelous score by Dutch ambient composer Rutger Zuydervelt… Teerink's reserved, spare form mirrors LeWitt's work, which gives it tremendous impact." Jordan Hoffman, The Dissolve

"Lives up to its subject with skillful handling and insightful ideas." Eric Monder, Film Journal International

"Excellent! Teerink captures LeWitt and the aesthetic force of his works in newly revelatory, consummate form." Paul d'Agostino, The L Magazine

"Lewitt helped establish Conceptualism and Minimalism as dominant movements of the postwar era. [His] deceptively simple geometric sculptures and drawings and ecstatically colored and jazzy wall paintings established him as a lodestar of modern American art." —Michael Kimmelman, The New York Times

Best Film,International Festival of Films on Art ArtFIFA Montreal
Best Documentary, Festival International du Livre sur Art et du Film
Haifa International Film Festival
Vancouver International Film Festival
Institute for Contempary Art London
Artecinema Film Festival Napels

72 minutes / Color
Dutch; Italian / English subtitles
Release: 2014
Copyright: 2012

For individual consumers (home video)

This DVD is sold for private, home use only.

This title is also available online from:

For colleges, universities, government agencies, hospitals and corporations

This DVD is sold with a license for institutional use and Public Performance rights.

Subject areas:
Art, Biographies, Cultural Studies, Painting

Related Links:
View a PDF of the Film's Press Kit


Related Titles:
Home | New | Titles | Subjects | Ordering   
About | Best Sellers | Filmmakers | Screenings   
address
  Follow Us! On...
Facebook Follow Icarus Films on Twitter Instagram Vimeo YouTube
Copyright (c) 2024, Icarus Films
Last Updated January 25, 2024 [Build 3.0.a060-d7]
Privacy Policy