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"The story of Sol LeWitt's exchanges with other artists is by now widely known. Though most artists engage in this process at one point or another, LeWitt seemed fully committed to it as an artistic code of conduct, a way of life. Eva Hesse, Robert Mangold, Hanna Darboven, and Robert Ryman are just a few of LeWitt's celebrated contemporaries with whom the artist exchanged works. Such exchanges were not limited to well-known artists, however: LeWitt consistently traded works with admirers whom he did not know but who had nevertheless sent their work to him, as well as amateur artists with whom he interacted in his daily life. LeWitt's exchanges-he responded to every work he received by sending back one of his own-fostered an ongoing form of artistic communion and, in some cases, a source of support and patronage. The Sol LeWitt Private Collection retains all of the works he received, as well as a record of what he offered in return."
"For LeWitt, the act of exchange seemed to be not only a personal gesture, but also an integral part of his conceptual practice. In addition to encouraging the circulation of artworks through a gift economy that challenged the art world's dominant economic model, LeWitt's exchanges with strangers have the same qualities of generosity, and risk, that characterized his work in general.
"This kind of exchange was designed to stage an encounter between two minds, outside the familiar confines of friendship.If we consider the process of exchange as another of Sol LeWitt's instructional pieces, then the rational (or irrational) thing to do is to continue to exchange work and ideas, if only symbolically, with him... What would Sol LeWitt like?"- Regine Basha, curator of An Exchange with Sol LeWitt
We thought that maybe Sol LeWitt would have liked to join us for dinner with friends one night (not to toot our own horn, but we cook quite well). With much feasting, drinking and general reveling amidst messy items, we would likely have become familiar with our napkins and the way that the weave feels on our faces and hands. Perhaps the whole party would have become absorbed with the weave pattern and ponder the methods, maps, and drafts used to create such cloths...well, probably not the whole party, but the two of us at least. With that, we present to LeWitt a set of silk-screened napkins (for a table of six) examining the loom patterns needed in creating a woven piece and the variation of patterns that result within the finished piece. The universal weave draft acts as a conceptual guide to individual weaver to create the unique physical weave.
- Pamela Garber and Xenia Pachikov, Empty Purse Publications -
An Exchange with Sol LeWitt is open at the Cabinet Magazine space in Brooklyn, NY from January 20-March 5, 2011, and at the MASS MoCA in North Adams, Massachusetts from January 23-March 31, 2011.
Special Thanks to Diana Pham for her sewing expertise.Also thanks to Patricia Baines and her book Linen: Hand Spinning and Weaving for explanations and diagrams regarding weave.