Concrete block, Sol Lewitt, 1997

Sol LeWitt was invited by curators Jan Hoet and Giacinto di Pietrantonio to create a permanent work in the courtyard of the Museum of Colle Val d’Elsa.

“…If what passes from form follows the function of the modernists, then after form follows the idea of the conceptualists.

Today’s architects don’t hold ziggurats in high regard… Ironically, the new Whitney Museum is an inverted ziggurat—highly praised—while office buildings are not considered particularly elegant… perhaps, then, this could be the right time to reconsider ziggurats. Many of them may eventually be recognized as valuable works of art.

Ziggurats themselves recall many of his works, from the modular structures to more recent sculptures such as the piece exhibited at the Giardini of the Venice Biennale, or the one built in the courtyard of the Museum of Colle Val d’Elsa.

A work of art involves many elements; the most important ones are the most evident.

They reveal a rhythm and an organization of basic geometric elements, such as the parallelepiped, that suggest a constructive system—which LeWitt swears, this time, does not exist. If that impression arises, it means the artist’s purpose—the idea before the form—has nonetheless been achieved. They recall ancient architectures—Aztec, Mayan—and the form and structure of modern cities—New York, Hong Kong—and the artist agrees. That seriality and standardization do not necessarily generate identical forms and images, but rather different ones.”

Jan Hoet, Arte all’Arte II, 1997