1400 Mission Street
Wall Drawing #1012 by Sol LeWitt
This artwork is part of San Francisco’s 1% for Art Program.
The piece covers the façade at the corner of 10th Street and Jessie Street and is the height of the ground story, and spans approximately 66 linear feet of the facade along 10th Street and 27 linear feet along Jessie Street. The original wall drawing was created in 2002 and was originally installed in a private residence in Los Angeles. The drawing was applied directly to a plaster substrate, transported, and installed on site.
The installation is a rather complicated process done by a team of artists led by Takeshi Arita. LeWitt rarely did his own installations. When you purchased a pice from LeWitt you would receive a very detailed set of plans on how to paint or install the piece. LeWitt designed his wall drawings with the intention that trained artists would follow his detailed plans to install the work.
Sol LeWitt (September 9, 1928 – April 8, 2007) was an American artist linked to various movements, including Conceptual art and Minimalism.
LeWitt came to fame in the late 1960s with his wall drawings and “structures” (a term he preferred instead of “sculptures”) but was prolific in a wide range of media including drawing, printmaking, photography, painting, installation, and artist’s books.
LeWitt was born in Hartford, Connecticut to a family of Jewish immigrants from Russia. His mother took him to art classes at the Wadsworth Atheneum in Hartford. After receiving a BFA from Syracuse University in 1949, LeWitt served in the Korean War, first in California, then Japan, and finally Korea. LeWitt moved to New York City in 1953 and set up a studio on the Lower East Side.
In 1968, LeWitt began to conceive sets of guidelines or simple diagrams for his two-dimensional works drawn directly on the wall, executed first in graphite, then in crayon, later in colored pencil and finally in chromatically rich washes of India ink, bright acrylic paint, and other materials.
The work sits on a 190-unit below market rate housing complex for homebuyers earning 100% or less of the area median income.
For an explanation of the installation take a look at this YouTube video.