Scribbles (Whitney)
2007

Sol LeWitt’s wall drawings include a set of instructions that enables others to execute them, thereby separating the idea of a work of art from the process of fabricating it. His written instructions, like the blueprints of an architect or the note-filled staves of a composer, often marked the end of his involvement in the realization of the work. In 2005, LeWitt commenced a series of “scribble” wall drawings, which required the executors to fill in regions of the wall by scribbling with graphite. Seen at close range, Scribbles (Whitney) reveals a network of overlapping, vein-like tracery, which becomes progressively denser and darker as it fans out to the square’s left and right vertical edges. This late work is significant in its return to graphite—the medium LeWitt used in his earliest wall drawings. The illusion of depth suggested by the varying densities of the scribbles likewise represents a departure from LeWitt’s earlier emphasis on the wall as a flat, planar surface.