Summary of Reversals and Rotations: Sol LeWitt’s Print Strategies

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In "Reversals and Rotations: Sol LeWitt's Print Strategies," Ryan McGinley discusses how LeWitt's unique approach to printmaking allowed for the creation of prints that differed from his other modes of production. McGinley also discusses how LeWitt's abstract visual language often reflects the Prince, his conceptual art series.

00:00:00 This lecture celebrates the new exhibition of Sol LeWitt's prints, "Strict Beauty: Solowit Prince." Dr. David Arford has been working on this exhibition for over six years and it is finally on view at Williams College Museum of Art. The exhibition is accompanied by a companion publication, "Strict Beauty: Solowit Prince," which covers the artist's entire career in depth. Williams College is proud to be hosting the exhibition and Dr. Arford thanks the LeWitt family for their friendship and generosity. He also thanks the New Britain Museum of American Art, Yale University Art Gallery, and Mass MoCA for their help in bringing the exhibition to fruition. The exhibition debuted at the New Britain Museum of American Art last year and Dr. Arford is currently working on a book project that will explore the connections between LeWitt's prints and medieval European devotional art.
00:05:00 In this video, David Arford presents reversals and rotations: Sol LeWitt's print strategies. LeWitt developed a distinctive mark of authorship in the 1950s by consistently including a signature and date in his prints, a development that was the direct result of his growing self-confidence. These signatures reveal LeWitt's understanding of the fundamental characteristic of most printmaking processes, namely that the printed image represents a reversal of the artist's original design.
00:10:00 Sol LeWitt's Print Strategies lecture covers the artist's use of reversal and rotation in his prints. He explains that these techniques are used to create a perceptual and intellectual reward for the viewer, one that depends on their awareness of the subtle complexities of how prints are made. LeWitt's works from the early 1970s demonstrate this use of reversal in wall drawings, artist books, and prints.
00:15:00 Sol LeWitt's "Print Strategies" series consists of etchings in which the text is reversed, making it difficult to read. The works are intended to engage the spectator, requiring them to decode the clues hidden within the obscure text. This series is in contrast to the other prints in the series, which are readable from left to right. LeWitt's use of the medium to create a deliberate obstruction of perceptual access highlights the process-driven nature of his conceptual art.
00:20:00 Sol LeWitt's Print Strategies video discusses the various print-specific strategies that the artist used, including turning the print matrix or source drawing a quarter turn, to create works that activate pictorial space. LeWitt also discusses the repertoire of moves that generated the works, and how the practice of his art moves or initiates actual movement that activates viewers' perceptual space.
00:25:00 Sol LeWitt created a series of prints called Reversals and Rotations, in which he uses two square plates to produce four different orientations of bands of color. The series is the result of only two plates being rotated, and the rotation of a quarter turn is all that is necessary to produce the different prints. The series is a way of extending and refining certain aspects of LeWitt's systematic serial practice, which was based in part on the use of two plates. The plates become a unit or module that can be rotated as part of a series of permutations, similar to Lewis lines in four directions or the cubic elements of his many modular structures. The reuse of the same plates ensures a level of uniformity and control in terms of LeWitt's vocabulary of lines.
00:30:00 In this video, Sol LeWitt discusses his methods for creating print series, which involve the gradual rotation of a drawing incrementally in quarter turns. While it is impossible to visually disentangle the separate layers due to the etching of the small scale, the overall meshing of lines and the shifting tonal values of the colors create a chaotic swirl. The title's directive not touching references the original drawing and its rules which are completely broken in the process of making the print. In this case, the process is easy to reconstruct due to the title's explicit instructions in four colors and printed in four directions. Compared to the four part combination of the Scribble Series, the overlapping marks are not as densely drawn and, as a result, it doesn't take long to notice several identical straggly lines repeated in each color at quarter intervals along the circle's periphery. Here, I point out the repeated red and black lines along the periphery, regardless of these tell-tale clues. The lines become an impossible tangle once we move in from the edge and, as a result, vision is confounded regardless of how simple the concept may appear. In this way, the print reflects Sol LeWitt's willingness to let chance or accident have a role in his
00:35:00 Reversals and rotations: Sol LeWitt's print strategies are demonstrated in this video. Lewis used rotation in various prints and print series from the early 1970s, but it would be over a decade before he returned to the strategy of rotation in printmaking. His works from the 1990s use rotation to emphasize the fleeting moments in dance.
00:40:00 Sol LeWitt's prints are characterized by their large scale and painterly mark making. His later prints, made with sugar lift, rely on a different type of plate rotation than his earlier aquatent prints. The brush strokes in these prints are larger and more painterly, and are one of the simplest forms of plate rotation. LeWitt spent a productive week at Crown Point Press in 1997, producing sugar lift aquatents and prints. Some of the prints from this visit, such as "Black Curvy Brush Strokes," feature short brush strokes and others, such as "Continuous Meandering Band," a continuous band of brush strokes.
00:45:00 Sol LeWitt's prints are composed of overlapping brushstrokes in all directions, creating a complex geometric structure. The viewer can reconstruct the prints' movements through a visual and mental re-performance.
00:50:00 Sol LeWitt's prints are composed of layers of transparent inks, and often feature complex rotations and reversals that are concealed from view. His relationship with printers was important to him, and he often worked directly on the prints' plates.
00:55:00 In "Reversals and Rotations: Sol LeWitt's Print Strategies," video creator and printmaker, Ryan McGinley, discusses Sol LeWitt's unique approach to printmaking, which centered around cultivating relationships with master printers and allowing artists to work without necessarily being trained in the art form. This approach allowed for the creation of prints that differed from LeWitt's other modes of production, such as his wall drawings, in that he had more control over the final product. McGinley also discusses how LeWitt's abstract visual language often reflects the Prince, his conceptual art series.

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This video discusses the work of Sol LeWitt, particularly his print strategies. The different scale and reversed image of a print creates a different experience, one that is more intimate and resonates with historical art. LeWitt is a confusing scholar, but his long-term perspective lends to his appreciation of material aspects of his prints as well as the viewing situation.