Sol LeWitt Upside Down

Sol LeWitt Upside Down
2015-

Blind installations after Sol LeWitt

Sol LeWitt Upside Down onto Wall – Modular Wall Structure, Expanded 20 Times
2022

Aluminum venetian blinds, powder-coated aluminum hanging structure, steel wire rope, LED tubes, cable

500 x 504 x 104 cm

Commissioned by the Smart Museum of Art, the University of Chicago

Courtesy of the artist

Installation view of Quasi Legit, Smart Museum of Art, the University of Chicago, USA, 2022
Photo: Tyler Mallory

Sol LeWitt Upside Down onto Wall – Cubic-Modular Wall Structure, Black, Expanded 11 Times
2018

Aluminum venetian blinds, powder-coated aluminum hanging structure, steel wire rope, LED tubes, cable

305 x 304 x 104 cm

Courtesy of Kukje Gallery, Seoul

Installation view at Kukje Gallery Booth, Taipei Dangdai, Taipei, Taiwan, 2019
Photo: Sebastiano Pellion Di Persano

Sol LeWitt Upside Down onto Wall – Open Cube/Corner Piece, Scaled Down 3 Times
2018

Aluminum venetian blinds, powder-coated aluminum hanging structure, steel wire rope, LED tubes, cable

105 x 144 x 74 cm

Courtesy of Kukje Gallery, Seoul

Installation view at Kukje Gallery Booth, Taipei Dangdai, Taipei, Taiwan, 2019
Photo: Sebastiano Pellion Di Persano

Sol LeWitt Upside Down onto Wall – Open Cube/Corner Piece, Scaled Down 3 Times
2018

Aluminum venetian blinds, powder-coated aluminum hanging structure, steel wire rope, LED tubes, cable

105 x 144 x 74 cm

Courtesy of Kukje Gallery, Seoul

Photo: Chunho An

Sol LeWitt Upside Down – Cubic Modular Piece No. 3, Expanded 1.2 Times
2018

Aluminum venetian blinds, powder-coated aluminum hanging structure, steel wire rope, LED tubes, cable

305 x 304 x 104 cm

Courtesy of Kukje Gallery, Seoul

Photo: Keith Park

Sol LeWitt Upside Down – Cube Structures Based on Five Modules, Central One Expanded 184 Times, Another Expanded 66 Times then Doubled and Mirrored #81-E
2017

Aluminum venetian blinds, powder-coated aluminum hanging structure, steel wire rope, LED tubes, cable

455 x 703 x 496 cm

Commissioned by Maison Hermès Dosan Park, Seoul

Courtesy of the artist

Installation view at Maison Hermès Dosan Park, Seoul, South Korea, 2017
Photo: Masao Nishkawa

Sol LeWitt Upside Down – K123456, Expanded 1078 Times, Doubled and Mirrored
2015

Aluminum venetian blinds, powder-coated aluminum hanging structure, steel wire rope, fluorescent tubes, cable

878 x 563 x 1088 cm

Courtesy kurimanzutto, Mexico City

Installation view of Ornament and Abstraction, kurimanzutto, Mexico City, Mexico, 2017
Photo: Omar Luis Olguín

Four Times Sol LeWitt UpsideDown, Version Point to Point
2016–2017

Aluminum venetian blinds, powder-coated aluminum hanging structure, steel wire rope, LED tubes, cable

Courtesy of Galerie Barbara Wien, Berlin and Greene Naftali, New York.

1025 x 894 x 1290 cm

Consists of:
Sol LeWitt Upside Down – Cube Structure Based on Five Modules, Expanded 184 Times #73-A, 2016
Sol LeWitt Upside Down – Cube Structure Based on Five Modules, Expanded 184 Times #74-B, 2016
Sol LeWitt Upside Down – Cube Structure Based on Five Modules, Expanded 186 Times #93-C, 2016
Sol LeWitt Upside Down – Cube Structure Based on Five Modules, Expanded 186 Times #95-D, 2016

* These works were shown only once in this configuration in the exhibition Field Guide, Remai Modern, Saskatoon, 2017.

Installation view of Field Guide, Remai Modern, Saskatoon, 2017
Photo: Matt Ramage, Studio D.

Installation view of Field Guide, Remai Modern, Saskatoon, 2017
Photo: Blaine Campbell

Sol LeWitt Upside Down – Cube Structure Based on Five Modules, Expanded 186 Times #95-D
2016

Aluminum Venetian blinds, aluminum hanging structure, powder coating, steel wire, LED tubes, cable

379 x 497.5 x 497.5 cm

Courtesy of Galerie Barbara Wien, Berlin

Installation view of Quasi-Pagan Serial, Hamburger Kunsthalle, Hamburg, Germany, 2016
Photo: Kay Riecher

Sol LeWitt Upside Down – Cube Structure Based on Five Modules, Expanded 186 Times #93-C
2016

Aluminum Venetian blinds, aluminum hanging structure, powder coating, steel wire, LED tubes, cable

379 x 497.5 x 299.5 cm

Courtesy of Galerie Barbara Wien, Berlin

Installation view of Quasi-Pagan Serial, Hamburger Kunsthalle, Hamburg, Germany, 2016
Photo: Kay Riecher

Sol LeWitt Upside Down onto Wall – Maquette for 1 x 2 x 2 Half Off, Expanded 62 Times
2016

Aluminum Venetian blinds, aluminum hanging structure, powder coating, steel wire, LED tubes, cable

150 x 202.5 x 103.6 cm

Courtesy of the artist

Installation view of Quasi-Pagan Minimal, Greene Naftali, New York, USA, 2016
Photo: Elisabeth Bernstein

Sol LeWitt Upside Down – Wall Piece No. 4, Expanded 16 Times
2016

Aluminum Venetian blinds, aluminum hanging structure, powder coating, steel wire, LED tubes, cable

200 x 302.5 x 103.6 cm

Courtesy of the artist

Installation view of Quasi-Pagan Minimal, Greene Naftali, New York, USA, 2016
Photo: Elisabeth Bernstein

Sol LeWitt Upside Down – Cube Structure Based on Five Modules, Expanded 184 Times #74-B
2016

Aluminum Venetian blinds, aluminum hanging structure, powder coating, steel wire, LED tubes, cable

425 x 498.5 x 300.5 cm

Courtesy of the artist

Installation view of Quasi-Pagan Minimal, Greene Naftali, New York, USA, 2016
Photo: Elisabeth Bernstein

Sol LeWitt Upside Down – Cube Structure Based on Five Modules, Expanded 184 Times #73-A
2016

Aluminum Venetian blinds, aluminum hanging structure, powder coating, steel wire, LED tubes, cable

425 x 498.5 x 201.5 cm

Courtesy of the artist

Installation view of Quasi-Pagan Minimal, Greene Naftali, New York, USA, 2016
Photo: Elisabeth Bernstein

Sol LeWitt Upside Down – Open Modular Cubes (Small), Expanded 958 Times
2015

Aluminum Venetian blinds, aluminum hanging structure, powder coating, steel wire

560 x 1052.5 x 562.5 cm

Commissioned for APT8. Purchased 2015 with funds from Tim Fairfax, AC, through the Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art Foundation. Collection: Queensland Art Gallery

Installation view of The Eighth Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art (APT8), Queensland Art Gallery, Australia, 2015
Photo: Queensland Art Gallery

Sol LeWitt Upside Down – K123456, Expanded 1078 Times, Doubled and Mirrored
2015

Aluminum Venetian blinds, aluminum hanging structure, powder coating, steel wire, fluorescent tubes, cable

840 x 562.5 x 1052.5 cm

Courtesy of kurimanzutto, Mexico City

Installation view of Come Shower or Shine, It Is Equally Blissful, Ullens Center for Contemporary Art, Beijing, China, 2015
Photo: Tang Xuan

UCCA

Sol LeWitt Upside Down – Structure with Three Towers, Expanded 23 Times, Split in Three
2015

Aluminum Venetian blinds, aluminum hanging structure, powder coating, steel wire, fluorescent tubes, cable

3 towers, 438 x 426 x 426 cm each

Tate Collection, purchased with funds provided by the Asia Pacific Acquisitions Committee and Kyung-soo Huh, Sung-Moon Kwon, Tae Won Hahn and Byucksan Foundation 2018

Sol LeWitt Upside Down – 1 4 1, Expanded 360 Times
2015

Aluminum Venetian blinds, aluminum hanging structure, powder coating, steel wire

140 x 282.5 x 142.5 cm
Courtesy of dépendance, Brussels

Installation view of Sample Book, dépendance, Brussels, Belgium, 2015
Photo: Sven Laurent

Sol LeWitt Upside Down – Maquette for Outdoor Sculpture, Expanded 54 Times
2015

Aluminum Venetian blinds, aluminum hanging structure, powder coating, steel wire

210 x 212.5 x 212.5 cm

Courtesy of dépendance, Brussels

Installation view of Sample Book, dépendance, Brussels, Belgium, 2015
Photo: Sven Laurent

Sol LeWitt Upside Down – Structure with Three Towers, Expanded 23 Times
2015

Aluminum Venetian blinds, aluminum hanging structure, powder coating, steel wire

350 x 1052.5 x 352.5 cm

Tate Collection, purchased with funds provided by the Asia Pacific Acquisitions Committee and Kyung-soo Huh, Sung-Moon Kwon, Tae Won Hahn and Byucksan Foundation 2018

Installation view of Shooting the Elephant 象 Thinking the Elephant, Leeum, Samsung Museum of Art, Seoul, South Korea, 2015
© Leeum, Samsung Museum of Art

* The work was shown in modified versions and with a new title ("Split in Three") at the Lyon Biennale in 2015 and at Art Basel in 2016.

Sol LeWitt Upside Down – Structure with Three Towers, Expanded 23 Times is installed in midair above the ramp at the entry point to the exhibition, an area with plentiful natural light. Sol LeWitt’s sculptures are produced by creating forms through geometrical units repeated according to certain rules; he created a series of various structures in which the volume of the structures’ constituent cubes is determined through a reduced framework of straight edges. Sol LeWitt Upside Down is a direct reference to Sol LeWitt’s Structure with Three Towers (1986), replacing the edges that served as basic units delineating the volume of the sculpture’s squares with the faces of sets of blinds, installed horizontally. While the sculpture becomes more opaque as its volume increases and the layers of blinds accumulate, in its shallow areas the units maintain their thin density and spatial transparency. Moreover, the clear geometrical structure of the sculpture constantly transforms freely with the ever-delicate changes in the natural light of the space. The language of Sol LeWitt Upside Down, while referencing a concrete work of art, approaches the original work differently than a postmodern parody or a hybridized imitation. Sol LeWitt Upside Down is at the same time disconnected from Yang’s previous abstract language, resulting in the deliberate loss of the concreteness of a historical person and event and their related narratives. That is, the artist unlearns the investigations of color, structure, and form produced by her original abstract methods and evokes Sol LeWitt in order to dispose of excavations into basic compositional styles. In the artist’s act of turning the original work upside down and expanding it to a great degree, we find a liberation from the obligation of composition that is in genuine agreement with Sol LeWitt.

(Shooting the Elephant 象Thinking the Elephant Exhibition Catalogue, Leeum, Samsung Museum of Art, Seoul, South Korea, 2015)

Exhibition history

Monochrome Multitudes,Smart Museum of Art, the University of Chicago, USA, 2022

Materials and Objects, Tate Modern, London, UK, 2019

ETA 1994-2018, Museum Ludwig, Cologne, Germany, 2018

Ornament and Abstraction, kurimanzutto, Mexico City, Mexico, 2017

Quasi-Pagan Serial, Hamburger Kunsthalle, Hamburg, Germany, 2016

Quasi-Pagan Minimal, Greene Naftali, New York, USA, 2016

The Eighth Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art (APT8), Queensland Art Gallery, Australia, 2015

La vie moderne, La Biennale de Lyon, La Sucrière, Lyon, France, 2015

Sample Book, dépendance, Brussels, Belgium, 2015

Come Shower or Shine, It Is Equally Blissful, Ullens Center for Contemporary Art, Beijing, China, 2015

Shooting the Elephant 象 Thinking the Elephant, Leeum, Samsung Museum of Art, Seoul, South Korea, 2015