Drawing Instructions
Each time they are in an exhibition, Sol Lewitt’s drawings are made right on the wall. The people drawing them use a set of instructions written by the artist. The instructions are open to interpretation: often, the people following them have to decide where the lines or shapes should go. A wall drawing like this one looks a little different every time it is created. At the end of an exhibition, the wall drawing is painted over and the instructions are stored until next time the drawing is made.
Make a drawing by following the instructions below.
1. Find a piece of paper and a pencil.
2. Draw 24 tiny circles anywhere on a piece of paper..
3. Connect 12 of the circles with straight lines.
4. Connect 12 of the circles with wavy lines.
Next, ask someone else in your family to follow the same instructions and make another drawing. How is it different from your drawing?
See all Whitney Kids Art Challenges.
Sol LeWitt, 4th wall: 24 lines from the center, 12 lines from the midpoint of each of the sides, 12 lines from each corner, 1976, from Wall Drawing #289 (installation view, Programmed: Rules, Codes, and Choreographies in Art, 1965-2018, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, September 28, 2018-April 14, 2019). Wax crayon, graphite pencil, and paint on wall, dimensions variable. Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; purchase with funds from the Gilman Foundation, Inc. 78.1.4. © Sol LeWitt/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Photograph by Ron Amstutz
