NAHUM TEVET SOL LEWITT

The exhibition features two floor installations by Nahum Tevet: One Out of Four (2012) and Islands (2012), and “A black not straight line is drawn at approximately the center of the walI horizontally from side to side. Alternate red, yellow and blue lines are drawn above and below the black line to the top and bottom of the wall,” a wall drawing by Sol LeWitt (2001).

Sol LeWitt (1928-2007), an American artist known for his conceptual and minimalist art, coined the term "Conceptual Art." With the publication of the text "Paragraphs Sentences on Conceptual Art" in 1967, LeWitt outlined a new path for art, signalling a departure from the influence of abstract expressionism in the US. In his art, the conceptual system shaping the work becomes the work itself, and the physical object serves as an optional result. This preference for the concept over form, LeWitt summarised as, "The idea becomes a machine that makes the art." This new conceptual approach redefined the value of the unique art object and radically reduced the significance of the artist's personal touch.

For LeWitt, the wall drawings were the most direct method for applying the conceptual principle to his two-dimensional practice. He began creating them in 1968, limiting himself to the conception and planning of the drawing. He wrote practical instructions, which were then carried out by others. The wall drawings could be created on different sites whilst being shaped by the particular wall’s nature and location and the individual hand of the executing assistants. Through a pre-determined algorithm, the artist does not conceive the artwork; as LeWitt stated, "you don’t think about it. It is a way of not thinking. It is irrational."

The work of sculptor Nahum Tevet (b. 1946), one of Israel's most prominent artists, also evolved from conceptual models. His work is influenced by the avant-garde movements of the 1960s and the utopian concepts advocated by Sol LeWitt, as well as minimalist sculptors Donald Judd and others.

Despite Tevet’s roots in this tradition, his art questions the dominant idea of the conceptual system. Although Tevet's installations and sculptures seemingly derive from minimalist conceptual concepts, his work points towards a new dimension emerging from the modular. The idea cannot sustain itself but appears as an incomprehensible or intangible space.

Like LeWitt, Tevet's formal language derives from fixed modules positioned in various ways within space, placed next to, on top of, inside, or leaning against each other. The positioning of objects within a space and the interrelations between them determine the way we experience and assign meaning to things. The numerous interactions and changing dynamics between the artworks’ objects, the viewer's body and LeWitt's wall drawing form an abstract seismic space in which precise systems, rigorous cleanliness, and compulsive rituals of the artwork veil an abstract abyss of irrationality.

Special thanks to IL Collection for lending Nahum Tevet’s work "Islands." Special thanks to Boaz Manshri for his assistance in creating Tevet's works, to Egon Rosenberg and Keshet Migdal for executing LeWitt's wall drawing, and to Carol LeWitt, the LeWitt Collection, and Adachiara Zevi for their cooperation.