Lines in Four Directions in Flowers

PROJECT OVERVIEW

Title: Lines in Four Directions in Flowers
Photo Credit: Constance Mensh
Lead Artist(s):
Sol LeWitt

Description:

Installed thirty years after its conception, Sol LeWitt’s "Lines in Four Directions in Flowers" is a work of monumental scale, made up of more than 7,000 plantings – a garden of strategically configured rows of flowers in four colors. In 1981, LeWitt was invited by the Fairmount Park Art Association (now known as the Association for Public Art) to propose a public artwork for a site in Fairmount Park. He selected a long, rectangular plot of land known as the William M. Reilly Memorial and submitted a drawing with instructions, in keeping with the nature of his conceptual art practice. In 2012, the Philadelphia Museum of Art realized LeWitt’s design adjacent to the Anne d’Harnoncourt Sculpture Garden, which opened in 2009. In his original proposal, the artist describes an installation of flower plantings of "four different colors (white, yellow, red & blue) in four equal rectangular areas, in rows of four directions (vertical, horizontal, diagonal right & left) framed by evergreen hedges of about 2’ height. In the winter the rows of plants would retain their linear direction, in the summer the flowers would bloom and provide the color." LeWitt chose the site for "Lines in Four Directions in Flowers" and planned the design, yet he left the ultimate realization of the project to others. The only project of its kind within the artist’s acclaimed and diverse body of work, it will be on view over the next two years, with perennial flowers blooming sequentially throughout the horticultural season. LeWitt was a pioneer of the 1960s Conceptual Art movement, emphasizing the importance of ideas over the material aspects of a work of art. In his practice, he uses an aesthetic of basic geometric shapes and repeated lines to reflect a sophisticated engagement with a world beyond the perceptual.

PROJECT LOCATION

Garden
Long rectangular plot of land in the William M. Reilly Memorial at Fairmount Park, adjacent to the Philadelphia Museum of Art on Benjamin Franklin Parkway at 26th Street
William M. Reilly Memorial
2600 Benjamin Franklin Parkway
Philadelphia, PA 19130
United States

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PROJECT TEAM

Philadelphia Museum of Art
Philadelphia Museum of Art
OLIN, Landscape Architecture and Urban Design, Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates, Groundswell Design Group, LCC
PROJECT DETAILS

Permanent
$245,072
Private
Installtion, garden
2012
2013
VIDEOS

Embedded thumbnail for 2013 Public Art Network Year in Review: Lines in Four Directions in Flowers