Date/Time
Wednesday, June 5, 2019
5:30 PM - 7:00 PM
Location
Lyman Allyn Art Museum
Categories
Free admissionLyman Allyn Art Museum and Bank Square Books present an author talk and book signing with Lary Bloom, author of Sol LeWitt: A Life of Ideas. Lary will read from his newest book and discuss his personal recollections of LeWitt, whom he knew in the last years of the artist’s life.
Please RSVP to 860.443.2545 ext.2129 or email us.
About the Book
Sol LeWitt (1928-2007), one of the most influential artists of the twentieth century, upended traditional practices of how art is made and marketed. A key figure in minimalism and conceptualism, he proclaimed that the work of the mind is much more important than that of the hand. For his site-specific work—wall drawings and sculpture in dozens of countries—he created the idea and basic plan and then hired young artists to install the pieces. Though typically enormous and intricate, the physical works held no value. The worth was in the pieces of paper that certified and described them. LeWitt championed and financially supported colleagues, including women artists brushed aside by the bullies of a male-dominated profession. Yet the man himself has remained an enigma, as he refused to participate in the culture of celebrity. Lary Bloom’s book draws on personal recollections of LeWitt, whom he knew in the last years of the artist’s life, as well as LeWitt’s letters and papers and over one hundred original interviews with his friends and colleagues, including Chuck Close, Ingrid Sischy, Philip Glass, Adrian Piper, Jan Dibbets, and Carl Andre. This absorbing chronicle brings new information to our understanding of this important artist, linking the extraordinary arc of his life to his iconic work. Includes 28 illustrations.
About the Author
His books include the biography, Sol LeWitt: A Life of Ideas, The Writer Within, Letters From Nuremberg (with Christopher J. Dodd), Lary Bloom’s Connecticut Notebook, The Test of Our Times (with Tom Ridge), and The Ignorant Maestro (with Itay Talgam). He has been a columnist for the New York Times, Connecticut magazine, the Hartford Courant, and the Miami Herald. He teaches memoir in Yale University’s summer workshop, and has taught in Fairfield University’s MFA program, Wesleyan University’s graduate program, and at Trinity College. As a freelance editor, he brought many books to publication. During 30 years as a magazine editor and columnist, he published hundreds of personal essays by prominent and unknown writers. Among his discoveries: the Pulitzer Prize winners Dave Barry and Madeleine Blais, and best-selling novelist Wally Lamb. He is cofounder of Writing at the Mark Twain House, the Sunken Garden Poetry Festival and a writing retreat in Italy. His plays include Worth Avenue, Wild Black Yonder and A Woman of a Certain Age (lyricist). He is the recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Connecticut Center for the Book.