LeWitt, Sol

Born on September 9.

Graduates with a degree in fine arts from Syracuse University in Syracuse, New York.

Serves in the United States Army. Posted to California, Japan, and Korea during the Korean War.

Moves to New York and enrolls in the Cartoonists and Illustrators School (later named the School of Visual Arts).

Works as a graphic designer in the studio of architect Ieoh Ming Pei, author of the famous pyramid of the Musée du Louvre.

Begins to work at the Museum of Modern Art in New York (first in the bookstore and then as a receptionist), where he meets artists including Dan Flavin, Robert Mangold, and Robert Ryman, as well as the art critic Lucy Lippard.

Has his first solo show, at John Daniels Gallery in New York. Creates his first modular pieces.

Participates in the historic exhibition Primary Structures, later identified as marking the emergence of Minimalism, at the Jewish Museum in New York. Solo Show at Dwan Gallery in New York.

Publishes “Paragraphs on Conceptual Art” in Artforum; the essay is considered the founding manifesto of Conceptual art.

Makes his first wall drawing at Paula Cooper Gallery in New York, in a show organized to raise funds for student committees against the Vietnam War. Participates in Documenta 4 in Kassel, Germany.

Is included in the When Attitudes Become Form exhibition curated by Harald Szeeman at the Kunsthalle Bern. Publishes “Sentences on Conceptual Art” in the journal 0-9. First museum exhibition, at the Museum Haus Lange in Krefeld, Germany.

Exhibits at the Gemeentemuseum Den Haag in the Hague, and at the Pasadena Art Museum in Pasadena, California.

Exhibitions of LeWitt’s work are presented at galleries in New York, Milan, Düsseldorf, Amsterdam, and London.

The Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam mounts a show of LeWitt’s prints.

Incomplete Open Cubes and Wall Drawings opens at the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art in Edinburgh and later travels to the Museum of Modern Art in Oxford and the Kunsthalle Basel.

Exhibits at the Kolnischer Kunstverein in Cologne. Participates in the XXXVII Biennale di Venezia.

Exhibits at the Utah Museum of Fine Arts in Salt Lake City. Participates in Documenta 6 in Kassel, Germany.

The Museum of Modern Art in New York presents a major retrospective of LeWitt’s work. The exhibition later travels to the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago and the La Jolla Museum of Contemporary Art in La Jolla, California, among other venues.

Moves to Spoleto, Italy. Exhibits at the Akron Art Institute in Akron, Ohio. Participates in the XXXIX Biennale di Venezia.

The Palac Kultury in Warsaw mounts an exhibition of LeWitt’s work.

Participates in Documenta 7 in Kassel, Germany.

Exhibits at CAPC, Musée d’Art Contemporain de Bordeaux; the Accademia delle Belle Arti in Perugia, Italy; and the Centre d’Art Contemporain in Geneva.

Exhibitions of LeWitt’s work are organized at two museums in the Netherlands: the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam and the Stedelijk Van Abbemuseum in Eindhoven.

Creates a wall drawing at the Brooklyn Museum in New York.

Returns to the United States, where he settles in Chester, Connecticut. The Tate Gallery in London presents the retrospective Sol LeWitt: Prints, 1970-1986.

Exhibits at the Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris; the Cleveland Museum of Art in Cleveland, Ohio; and the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C.

The Walker Art Center in Minneapolis presents an exhibition of LeWitt’s graphic work. Participates in the XLIII Biennale di Venezia.

Exhibits at the Kunsthalle Bern.

The Museum of Contemporary Art in Tokyo presents an exhibition of recent work by LeWitt.

Exhibits at the Museum of Modern Art in Oxford and takes part in the exhibition Art against AIDS at the XLV Biennale di Venezia.

The retrospective exhibition Sol LeWitt: Drawings, 1958-1992 opens at the Gemeentemuseum Den Haag in the Hague and later travels to the Museum of Modern Art in Oxford; Westfälisches Landesmuseum für Kunst und Kulturgeschichte in Münster, Germany; Henry Moore Sculpture Trust and Leeds City Art Gallery in Leeds; Kunstmuseum Winterthur; Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris; Fundació Antoni Tàpies in Barcelona; and Museum of Fine Arts in Boston.

Exhibits at the Kunstverein Ludwigsburg in Ludwigsburg, Germany.

A retrospective exhibition of LeWitt’s wall drawings is mounted at the Renn Espace Art Contemporain in Paris.

LeWitt’s work is featured in The Guggenheim Museums and the Art of This Century, the inaugural exhibition of the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao.

The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art holds a retrospective exhibition of LeWitt’s work. The exhibition later travels to the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago and the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York.

Sol LeWitt: Wall Drawings is exhibited at the Irish Museum of Modern Art in Dublin and the Williams College Museum of Art in Williamstown, Massachusetts.

Presents his first photography exhibition, Sol LeWitt: Fotografías, at the Fundación ICO in Madrid.

An exhibition of five outdoor sculptures and a wall drawing is installed on the roof garden at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.

The Madison Museum of Contemporary Art in Madison, Wisconsin, presents an exhibition of LeWitt’s work. Participates in the exhibition Homage to Chillida at the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao.

Dies of cancer on April 8.