Recently, on the way to the Museum of Modern Art in New York, I
stumbled upon a public art piece in the atrium of a corporate bank
complex on 51st Street. Guarded on either side by a pair of impressive
Barry Flanagan cast hares was a giant Sol LeWitt installation. This
was a pleasant surprise because it's inspiring to see public art
that has such immediate impact free for all to see, even though
to the unsuspecting passerby this might appear as a merely decorative
series of two-story high intertwined and highly colored blocks.
To any art aficionado his hallmark is unmistakable.
Has Sol LeWitt made concept art accessible or has the 'grid' become
so ubiquitous as not to be strange anymore? In
either case, we can now enjoy a similar experience closer to home.
Last March an exhibition of LeWitt's's drawings and prints was
quietly installed at the Chestnut Hill Academy. Six pieces were
generously donated by CHA alumni Hank McNeil and one piece was
commissioned in 2001 specifically for the Academy and donated
by LeWitt himself. The installation of this semi-permanent exhibition
coincided with the major LeWitt retrospective taking place at
the Whitney, and, for that reason perhaps, escaped the notice
of most of the art community here. Its significance did not go
unlauded at the school itself however. Over the past year it has
become an interdepartmental talking point and a new focus for
art education. Art department chair Dan Brewer suggests that this
once-in-a-lifetime opportunity has illustrated to students, and
the school community in general, how contemporary art functions
and makes you think. Not everyone had been aware that art can
be designed and built from plans, much like a building. Both Brewer
and McNeil were delighted that the works received such a positive
response. The exhibition was reviewed in the student paper, the
Chestnut Hill Local weekly newspaper, and was on the cover
of a recent CHA alumni magazine.
As with most of LeWitt's work of this type,
they all are devised to be fabricated on walls by assistants following
the artist's plans and instructions. A team, made up of one of
LeWitt's assistants, artists, faculty, and up to 300 students,
was responsible for fabricating most of the work, the earliest
of which dates from 1971. Over three hundred students helped create
10,000 Straight Lines & 10,000 Not Straight Lines.
Some of these assistants were in the second grade! Upper School
students with the aid of Dan Brewer and LeWitt assistant Emily
Ripley worked on LeWitt's special donated drawing, Wall Drawing
# 960, which is made up of hundreds of marks in black marker.
Wall Drawing # 29, from 1995, is made of broken up pieces
of Styrofoam and resides in the new Crawford Gallery. This piece
stands out as untypical for LeWitt. The other works are in a main
corridor, with the exception of one residing in the Library Media
Room.
Although the school, located in what was a huge Victorian hotel
on the edge of Fairmount Park in Chestnut Hill, is certainly not
the first place one would expect to find conceptual art, much
less by one of the most notable artists in America, it is this
contradiction in context that makes the installation so outstanding.
Now including the addition of the new custom-built Crawford gallery
and art studios, the Chestnut Hill Academy can boast of a completely
professional environment for exhibiting art by both students and
faculty. They recently held a 911 exhibition that originated in
Washington and included nationally known artists. Not too shabby.
It will be interesting to see what plans they come up with next
for the gallery. These are brave and impressive gestures.
© 2002 James Rosenthal and InLiquid.com
EDITOR'S NOTE: less adventurous souls --
i.e., those who would just as soon take a balsa boat expedition
to Polynesia as leave Center City -- in need of a local LeWitt
fix can also stop by the entryway of CHAD, the Charter High School
for Architecture and Design, at 7th & Sansom Streets to view
his Drawing # 2.
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