Sol LeWitt: Lines in Four Directions in Flowers

OLIN collaborated with the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Fairmount Park Art Association, and the City of Philadelphia Office of Arts, Culture and the Creative Economy to interpret and realize the concept drawing Lines in Four Directions in Flowers that was created by renowned minimalist artist Sol LeWitt in 1981. Though not realized at the time, LeWitt submitted a drawing with instructions to be implemented in Revolutionary War Heroes Park, behind the Philadelphia Museum of Art. The work will activate the area of Fairmount Park as seen from the Anne d’Harnoncourt Sculpture Garden, also by OLIN, and illuminate the expansive breadth of the oeuvre of the artist.

Flowers of four different colors—white, yellow, red and blue—are arranged in four equal rectangular areas, in rows of four directions and framed by evergreen hedges of about two feet in height. In winter, the rows of plants will retain their linearity; in the summer, the flowers will bloom in an orchestrated sequence and provide color. Once the plant species were selected, the entire planting plan was facilitated by establishing the parameters of bloom sequencing and color in a parametric modeling program. A key challenge was to determine the appropriate composition of the 10,000 plants and the use of negative space between rows—a signature element of the artist’s work—which best captures the length and sequence of the display of all of the plantings from time of installation, through bloom and dormancy.

Location
Philadelphia, PA

Owner
City of Philadelphia

Status
Completed 2012

Key Team Members
Susan K. Weiler, Partner-in-Charge
Judy Venonsky, Associate, Living Systems Specialist