As the first solo exhibition of theoretical artist Sol LeWitt at a Japanese public art museum, “Sol LeWitt: Open Structure” is being shown at the Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo until April 2nd this year.

Sol LeWitt (1928–2007) is one of the leading American artists of the late 20th century. He conceived of “conceptual art” in the 1960s as an artistic movement focused on ideas and practices, rather than the materials, to create the core of an artwork. Therefore, the ideas behind the art weighed greater than the finished product.

He remarked, “When an artist uses a conceptual form of art, it means that all of the planning and decisions are made beforehand and the execution is a perfunctory affair. The idea becomes a machine that makes the art.”

Sol LeWitt working on Wall Drawing #66 at the Guggenheim Museum, New York, 1971. © 2025 The LeWitt Estate/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Courtesy Paula Cooper Gallery

The exhibition theme of “open structure” pertains to the exposed frameworks, which eliminate the solid surfaces and highlight the lines, patterns, formulas, and permutations surrounding LeWitt’s works. In this way, the underlying skeleton of the form allows visitors to look through the perceptive aspect of the object. LeWitt adhered to Minimalism, believing that “complex forms disrupt the unity of the basic whole.”

Six wall drawings, three- and two-dimensional works, and artist books illustrate the mechanisms and processes carried out to translate thoughts into forms. Walking through the galleries makes the visitors ponder deeply on the abstract studies behind the art.

Sol LeWitt, Incomplete Open Cube 6/20, 1974, Collection of Chiba City Museum of Art, Installation view of the exhibition “Sol LeWitt: Open Structure” at the Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo, 2025. © 2025 The LeWitt Estate/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Courtesy Paula Cooper Gallery. Photo: Alma Reyes

In the first gallery, the “Incomplete Open Cube 6/20” (first installation, 1974) sits idly without sides in a corner. Made of baked enamel on aluminum, the piece evokes the state of sequential transformation devoid of a sense of perfection and invariability.

Sol LeWitt, Wall Drawing #104A 10,000 random straight lines, about 4 inches (10 cm) long, within a 10-foot (300 cm) square, First installation in January 1996, Current installation in December 2025 by Andrew Colbert, Takafumi Kijima, Gaku Okahara, and Shingo Tameso, LeWitt Collection, Chester, Connecticut. Installation view of the exhibition “Sol LeWitt: Open Structure” at the Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo, 2025. © 2025 The LeWitt Estate/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Courtesy of Paula Cooper Gallery. Photo: Alma Reyes

Next to it is an enormous standing white wall drawn with string-like broken lines. “Wall Drawing #104A 10,000 random straight lines, about 4 inches (10 cm) long, within a 10-foot (300 cm) square” complements LeWitt’s non-visual structures as manifestations of free imagination and interpretation.