OBERLIN, OH.- A major exhibition of works by American conceptual artist Sol LeWitt (b. 1928) opens at the Allen Memorial Art Museum (AMAM) and will remain on view through June 17, 2007. A free gallery talk about the exhibition will be given on Friday, March 9 at 6:00 pm, preceded by the exhibition's opening reception at 5:00 pm. Both events are open to the public.

Among the works on view are two bold new wall drawings—each measuring more than 18 feet high—created by Sol LeWitt specifically for the AMAM's Ellen Johnson Gallery. LeWitt, who knew Oberlin’s legendary professor of art Ellen Johnson well, generously donated the graphite "scribble drawing" to the AMAM. Oberlin students and area residents, under the guidance of professional artists from LeWitt’s wall drawing studio, spent the month of January working on these huge drawings.

The wall drawings are shown with a selection of works drawn from LeWitt’s personal collection. These include early sketches from the 1950s, recent gouache drawings and sculptures.

The works on loan complement the AMAM's important early LeWitt, 49 Three-Part Variations on Three Different Kinds of Cubes (1967–71). Acquired in 1972, this enamel-on-steel work underscores LeWitt’s belief that the concept is the most important aspect of a work of art. In his words: “The idea becomes a machine that makes the art.”

Newly restored and on view for the first time in more than a decade, this piece explores three types of cubes: solid cube, cube with opposite sides removed and cube with one side removed, representing all possible permutations of these cubes and their arrangements.

On Friday, March 16, at 4:30 pm in the Ellen Johnson Gallery, conservator Heather Galloway of the Intermuseum Conservation Association, will discuss the recent conservation of this work.