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Phil Douglis | all galleries >> Galleries >> Gallery Forty-Nine: Creating an echo with rhythm and pattern > Pattern at work, Wall drawing by Sol LeWitt, MASS MoCA, North Adams, Massachusetts, 2011
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26-JUL-2011

Pattern at work, Wall drawing by Sol LeWitt, MASS MoCA, North Adams, Massachusetts, 2011

Le Witt’s wall drawings now on display at the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art were created over the past 40 years. Most of them express their power through pattern – a repeated sequence of forms, shapes, or lines. Le Witt designed the exhibit himself, shortly before he died in 2007. He often paired differing patterns, sometimes placing them on walls that converged in the corners of the display rooms. I found this pairing at a corner, and tilt my camera to present LeWitt’s patterns as diagonal patterns colliding within the rectangular frame of my camera. The frame only shows part of the overall design, creating an abstraction to allow my viewers to complete the illusion within their own imaginations.

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Phil Douglis15-Aug-2011 17:53
I share your trepidations over geometry, Iris. I suffered mightily when I had to study it in back in high school. I still cringe at the very thought of memorizing a theorem. However I have since learned to love the nature of geometric shapes in photography. Triangles, diagonals, and circular shapes have become very much a part of my vision. And they certainly are the basis of Sol LeWitt's vision as well. Geometry is a powerful unifying force in composition. It express energy, and hints at larger meanings. As long as I do not have to consider those elusive numerical formulae, I cherish geometrical expression. I'm glad you now feel likewise.
Iris Maybloom (irislm)14-Aug-2011 23:03
I never thought I'd like geometry, but this image has altered my perception!
Phil Douglis14-Aug-2011 18:31
I can take no credit for the colors, Alina. They are Lewitt's. As for the composition, I simply rearranged LeWitt's original idea by making it flow diagonally instead of horizontally. Just a different way of looking at another person's art.
Alina13-Aug-2011 19:50
I lie the composition and colors.
Phil Douglis11-Aug-2011 00:20
Thanks, Claudia, for your observations. When photographing the work of another artist, I try to do things with my camera that the artist did not do. For example, as you note, I tilted my camera to make the patterns into diagonals. I cropped his art as well, lending my own interpretation to it. It is an image full of illusions, both in the original, and in my photographic rendition of it.
BleuEvanescence11-Aug-2011 00:14
Ohhhhh, this is truly challenging and exciting for the mind.This is also a work of high precision, it looks perhaps easy to do but...not so. I like how the lines interconnect between themselves and if we fix the B&W patterns, after a little pause, they seem to pulse in a very subtle way. By taking this in an angle you give it even more dynamic. Superbe.
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