Rice’s Glasscock School to display Sol LeWitt drawings, including major gift to Rice Public Art collection

Rice University
Office of Public Affairs / News & Media Relations

MEDIA ADVISORY

Jeff Falk
jfalk@rice.edu
713-348-6775

Rice’s Glasscock School to display Sol LeWitt drawings, including major gift to Rice Public Art collection
Celebratory events will coincide with installation

HOUSTON – (Nov. 1, 2019) – Drawings by one of the most influential artists of the 20^th and 21^st centuries are going on display at Rice University.

Sol LeWitt, Wall Drawing #1115: Circle within a square, each with broken bands of color, 2014, Acrylic paint, dimensions variable. Gift of Russell H. Pitman. © Estate of Sol LeWitt / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York.

Sol LeWitt, an American artist whose work helped establish both minimalism and conceptual art, created two wall drawings that will be installed at Rice’s Susanne M. Glasscock School of Continuing Studies. A series of events open to the public will celebrate the artist and his work.

“Wall Drawing #1115: Circle within a square, each with broken bands of color” (2014), the first work of conceptual art to enter the Rice Public Art collection, will be installed in the Dean’s Commons of the Anderson-Clarke Center. The professional draftspeople installing the drawing are expected to finish their work in mid-November.

“Wall Drawing #869A,” a “copied line” drawing that has never before been installed anywhere in the world, will be set up by a team of students working under the guidance of faculty from Rice and instructors from the Glasscock School. The three days of installation work begins Nov. 4.

A gift of Rice alumnus H. Russell Pitman ’58, “Wall Drawing #1115” underscores the intellectual rigor and nature of collaboration that takes place at Rice. The work was first conceived and installed in 2004, shortly before the artist’s death in 2007.

“This important work by Sol LeWitt will add an unprecedented level of energy and dynamism to the Dean’s Commons and be enjoyed by students and visitors alike,” said Robert Bruce, dean of the Glasscock School of Continuing Studies. “We couldn’t be more grateful for Russ Pitman’s generous gift, which will positively impact the life of the campus for years to come.”

The public events kick off with a Nov. 4 talk, “Who Is an Artist?” at the Anderson-Clarke Center by John Hogan, who began working with LeWitt in 1982 and directs installations of LeWitt’s wall drawings around the globe. Hogan is installations director for the LeWitt Estate and installations director and archivist for Sol LeWitt Wall Drawings at Yale University Art Gallery. Registration for the 7-8:30 p.m. event is at https://glasscock-info.rice.edu/who-is-an-artist.

“The Big Draw,” 5-7 p.m. Nov. 12, will feature a community workshop led by Glasscock School studio art instructors and explore the process of making a wall drawing. No registration is necessary.

The “Solebration: Free Community Opening Reception,” 5:30-7 p.m. Nov. 18, will mark the official opening of the installations. Registration is encouraged but not required at https://glasscock-info.rice.edu/solebration.

Finally, “Symposium: Sol LeWitt Today,” 10 a.m.-noon Dec. 7 at Rice’s Moody Center for the Arts, will gather nationally acclaimed LeWitt scholars, curators and artists for a critical discussion of LeWitt’s work. This event is organized by the Moody, Rice Public Art and the Department of Art History. No registration is necessary. Learn more at https://moody.rice.edu/events/symposium-sol-lewitt-today.

All events are free and open to the public.

More information about these events and the Sol LeWitt Project can be found at https://glasscock-info.rice.edu/lewitt. Cathy Maris, Sol LeWitt Project director and assistant dean for community learning and engagement at the Glasscock School, is available to speak with the media about the project.

The Anderson-Clarke Center is located on the west side of Rice’s campus at Entrance 8 at Stockton Drive and University Boulevard.

Members of the news media who want to cover any of the events should RSVP to Jeff Falk, associate director of national media relations at Rice, at jfalk@rice.edu or 713-348-6775. Media can park nearby in Moody Lot.

For a map of Rice University’s campus with parking information, go to www.rice.edu/maps.

-30-

Follow the Glasscock School via Twitter @GlasscockSchool.

Follow Rice Public Art via Twitter @RicePublicArt.

Follow Rice News and Media Relations via Twitter @RiceUNews.

Image for download: Sol LeWitt. Wall Drawing #1115. Circle within a square, each with broken bands of color. Acrylic paint. First drawn by: Takeshi Arita, Patrick Gavin, Glenn LaVertu, Laura Ostrander, Sara Saltzman. First installation: Museum of Art, Rhode Island School of Design, Providence. February 2004. © 2019 The LeWitt Estate / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Courtesy Paula Cooper Gallery, New York. Photo: Erik Gould.

Located on a 300-acre forested campus in Houston, Rice University is consistently ranked among the nation’s top 20 universities by U.S. News & World Report. Rice has highly respected schools of Architecture, Business, Continuing Studies, Engineering, Humanities, Music, Natural Sciences and Social Sciences and is home to the Baker Institute for Public Policy. With 3,962 undergraduates and 3,027 graduate students, Rice’s undergraduate student-to-faculty ratio is just under 6-to-1. Its residential college system builds close-knit communities and lifelong friendships, just one reason why Rice is ranked No. 1 for lots of race/class interaction and No. 4 for quality of life by the Princeton Review. Rice is also rated as a best value among private universities by Kiplinger’s Personal Finance.