For Sol LeWitt, art was a collection of ideas, not manual skill

At the Amorepacific Museum of Art in Seoul, visitors entering “Sol LeWitt: Open Structure” are asked to look beyond the visual spectacle of art. Instead of dazzling colors or expressive brushwork, they first encounter cool geometric forms.

The exhibition, which opened on the first day of the month in Seoul’s Yongsan district, features large-scale presentations of LeWitt’s work. Precisely constructed cubes and walls covered with orderly lines and grids seem to deliver a quiet instruction: do not merely look, think your way through the work.

LeWitt, a pioneer of American conceptual art, set out his position in a 1967 essay. “The most important thing about conceptual art is the idea. When an artist uses a conceptual form in art, it means that all of the planning and decisions are made beforehand and the execution is a perfunctory affair. The idea becomes the machine that makes the art.”

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The most important thing about conceptual art is the idea. When an artist uses a conceptual form in art, it means that all of the planning and decisions are made beforehand and the execution is a perfunctory affair. The idea becomes the machine that makes the art.