Wall Drw 999 (Aug 2001) Parallel Curves. Coll. Thomas Weisel

Wall Drawing 999 was designed for the Lever House in New York, one of the first glass and steel International Style office buildings built in the United States. The drawing spans two walls on the building’s second floor and is visible from the exterior courtyard. The sinuous web of wavy black bands on a white ground provides a dramatic contrast to the building’s formal geometry and uniform, grid-based design.

Like many of Sol LeWitt’s wall drawings made in the late 1990s and early 2000s, Wall Drawing 999 is painted in acrylic paint and features irregular, non-geometric forms, a profound departure from his early systematic drawings in pencil. LeWitt has said, “When presented with the scale that walls have, one must begin to engage their physical properties. The theatrical and decorative are unavoidable and should be used to emphasize the work.”¹