New-York based artist Sol LeWitt helped establish minimalism and conceptual art in the United States. At the foundation of his work are ideas that manifest themselves in a set of detailed instructions that are used by others to make a physical art object. Like an architect, all the planning and decisions that define the work are made beforehand, reducing its fabrication to a mechanical activity. His objective is laid out in the essay Paragraphs on Conceptual Art where he describes his goal to make “a machine that makes the art.” The work shown here, entitled X with Columns, is made with banal cinder blocks and concrete.

LeWitt’s earlier sculptural work was based on the cube, exploring its positive and negative spaces.  He was also very deliberate about how these forms would be experienced and specifically how they related to the human body.

In his later sculptural work, he departed from the cube and started conceptualizing towers and more complex forms. It is important to note that this particular work was conceived during this transition. The “X” is demonstrating a distinct vertical emphasis yet still fits perfectly within an implied cube.

A vast array of hideous, visually oppressive objects and spaces have been fashioned out of cinder blocks. If you close your eyes and imagine any unpleasant space you recently visited, there is a good chance it was made with cinder blocks. We shouldn’t blame or judge a material for how people choose to use it. It is hard to ignore that LeWitt took this banal block, and by merely imposing an elevated idea upon it and the space it occupies, imbued this humble building material with a strength and dignity rarely experienced.