{"id":110198,"date":"2025-08-01T12:06:16","date_gmt":"2025-08-01T12:06:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/110198\/"},"modified":"2025-08-01T12:06:16","modified_gmt":"2025-08-01T12:06:16","slug":"loops-famed-sol-lewitt-sculpture-needs-total-rebuild-feds-say","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/110198\/","title":{"rendered":"Loop\u2019s famed Sol LeWitt sculpture needs total rebuild, feds say"},"content":{"rendered":"

A celebrated sculpture by artist Sol LeWitt was removed from the facade of a Downtown federal building because it deteriorated and needs a complete rebuild, according to the U.S. General Services Administration.<\/p>\n

But the fabrication work has not been approved or funded, a GSA spokesperson said. While the agency said it\u2019s working with LeWitt\u2019s estate on the sculpture\u2019s conservation, the late artist\u2019s wife said she hasn\u2019t heard from the GSA about the artwork in \u201cyears.\u201d<\/p>\n

The 90-by-72-foot work, titled Lines in Four Directions, had been mounted on the west facade of the GSA-owned building at 10 W. Jackson Blvd.<\/p>\n

The GSA said damage was discovered on the piece, and the work was placed in storage in March, when the agency began repairing the leaky wall that held the sculpture.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe wall is undergoing repairs to address water infiltration,\u201d a GSA spokesperson said. \u201cThe artwork was assessed by a fine art conservator. Due to the extent of the deterioration of the artwork, full fabrication was deemed necessary. … Any refabrication would be subject to GSA approval and funding.\u201d<\/p>\n

The GSA said the McKay Lodge Conservation Laboratory has been picked to conserve the artwork. The Oberlin, Ohio, company handled the 2012 restoration of Flamingo, Alexander Calder\u2019s vermillion-colored sculpture in the Loop\u2019s Federal Plaza.<\/p>\n

Reached by phone Wednesday, a representative of the company said he wasn\u2019t allowed to comment.<\/p>\n

The Sun-Times was the first to report on the famed piece\u2019s removal<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Erected in 1985, Lines in Four Directions is a rectangular work fashioned in painted aluminum that faces a public plaza between six-story 10 W. Jackson and the Dirksen Federal Building.<\/p>\n

The GSA bought the building and the sculpture in 2000.<\/p>\n

Unveiled as a gift to the public, the work was funded by a $50,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Arts, plus donations raised by the NEA-funded Art in Public Places program.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"Black-and-white<\/p>\n

Sol LeWitt\u2019s Lines in Four Directions in 1985.<\/p>\n

Courtesy of Michael Tropea<\/p>\n

But when the Lines in Four Directions was suddenly removed from its setting and a reference to the work was removed from the GSA\u2019s website<\/a>, concerns were raised about the sculpture\u2019s whereabouts.<\/p>\n

The work is among 26,000 pieces of art and artifacts owned by the GSA.<\/p>\n

The GSA now says the decision to refabricate Lines in Four Directions \u201cwas approved by the LeWitt estate.\u201d <\/p>\n

But the late artist\u2019s wife, Carol A. LeWitt, who was in town last week from Chester, Connecticut, to see the Art Institute of Chicago\u2019s collection<\/a> of her late husband\u2019s work, said her daughter found correspondence between the GSA and the estate about conserving the sculpture, but it was from \u201cyears ago.\u201d<\/p>\n

She said the GSA hasn\u2019t contacted the estate since the artwork\u2019s removal, nor has it told her where it\u2019s being stored or conserved.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe idea that it was removed is terrifying because it\u2019s a site-specific work,\u201d LeWitt said. \u201cIt can only be on that site.\u2029It was made for that site. And if it belongs to the city of Chicago, I hope that it\u2019s the Chicagoans who enjoy it.\u201d<\/p>\n

LeWitt said the GSA should contact her about the artwork.<\/p>\n

\u201cI own the intellectual copyright. So I have a vested interest,\u201d she said. \u201cOne of the things that Sol did, which was unusual, is he kept the copyright to all of his work. He learned the importance of that as a graphic designer. So even when he sold something, the copyright never transferred. It was about being able to control.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A celebrated sculpture by artist Sol LeWitt was removed from the facade of a Downtown federal building because…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":110199,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[648,1032,1033,171,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-110198","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-arts-and-design","8":"tag-arts","9":"tag-arts-and-design","10":"tag-design","11":"tag-entertainment","12":"tag-united-states","13":"tag-unitedstates","14":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114953426864369031","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110198","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=110198"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110198\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/110199"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=110198"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=110198"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=110198"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}