STOLE LWIT, Version 1. (For Samuel Yates)
2008 - Ink on Wall (Wood, Screws, Plaster Board, Paint) ≈3700 x 3700 mmThis work is technically, in every practical sense, a Sol LeWitt. This wall drawing was executed from a LeWitt drawing, a doodle drawn by the artist during his 2000 retrospective at SFMOMA, and exactly executed by a trained member from his crew (myself). By having the wall made into a discrete object, though a very large one, the work further draws attention to the issues surrounding originality, artist intent and the portability of ideas."
-- Adam Rompel
Editor's Note from "Allan Smithee" ...
In the late 80's was visiting my then girlfriend in Zurich when we took a road trip to Lausanne to see an installation of very large Richard Serra drawings and attend the opening of a new site-specific piece by Sol LeWitt.
Had just flown to Switzerland from the States a day or two before. When I was talking to one of the LeWitt guys who had done the wall painting, he asked me how I was able to be there... wasn't the jet lag bad? No I told him, didn't feel a thing and them wham, yep, jet lag.
Later on, remember telling him, while now in a new disconnected mental state, why bother to paint the LeWitt? It's a conceptual piece anyway. Long story short, wrong thing to say to the assistant plus, really, LeWitt's pieces are great and generally very beautiful, ie, his colors, scale, etc. I also noticed how quickly he excused himself from the conversation and moved on to other people.
Anyways, toward the end of the evening, B. Diethelm mentioned to me that we were invited to the after-opening dinner party. While walking to the restaurant, the assistant (yes, same guy I had the "conversation" with and who had invited her and companion to the dinner party) suddenly noticed, unhappily, I was the other half of the couple. We were quietly and quickly disinvited.
postscript: am pretty sure the above posted painting is for another person with whom I share a name. Also, it's probably a different LeWitt assistant from the one I met.