Sol LeWitt

Four Basic Kinds of Lines & Colour

$420

On special offer during Printed Matter Virtual Art Book Fair is this original first printing of Sol LeWitt's Four Basic Kinds of Lines & Colour published in 1977, released from the Lisson Gallery's archive.

As part of his 1960s and '70s series of serial systems for lines and colours, LeWitt produced this artist's book with Lisson Gallery in 1977, to coincide with the exhibition: New Works: Structures & Early Working Drawings.

In this original publication, LeWitt demonstrates the 34 ways that basic lines (horizontal, vertical, left-facing diagonal and right-facing diagonal) can be rendered in four separate colours (red, yellow, blue and black), with each page displaying a single combination (for example, horizontal lines in blue).

Four Basic Kinds of Lines & Colour is a composite of two earlier publications — Four Basic Kinds of Straight Lines (1969) and Four Basic Colours and Their Combinations (1971). Each left-hand page offers a black-and-white study of four types of lines executed in all possible combinations, while right-hand pages present a combinatory system of lines in the four colours. The book opens with a two-page key overviewing all permutations that follow.

Illustrated with 16 black-and-white images, 16 colour images.

Publication date: 1977

Format: Soft cover, offset on paper, staple bound

Pages: 36

Dimensions: 20.32 × 20.32 cm (8 × 8 in.)