49 Three-Part Variations on Three Different Kinds of Cubes

Made with simple, freestanding geometric forms and based on a specific order and serial imagery, Sol LeWitt's 49 Three-Part Variations on Three Different Kinds of Cubes was acquired by the AMAM early in LeWitt's career, when he was experimenting with a variety of floor pieces that developed from his wall drawings. This piece belongs to a group of works, dating from 1967 through 1969, executed in aluminum and painted. The first in this series was 47 Three-Part Variations on Three Different Kinds of Cubes, exhibited at the Dwan Gallery in New York (it was later destroyed by the artist because of fabrication problems). Although this earlier, 1967 piece was composed of forty-seven variations and incorporated larger cubes that were connected at the base, both it and the AMAM piece employ three types of cubes: a solid cube, a cube with two opposite sides removed, and a cube with one side removed. LeWitt intended the variations to represent all possible three-part combinations, but as he discovered that there were in fact even more possible combinations, he produced several succeeding versions, culminating in All Three-Part Variations on Three Different Kinds of Cubes (1969), which included fifty-six variations.

LeWitt's exploration of this theme took several different forms: individual drawings, drawings in book form, and three-dimensional pieces. "In conceptual art, the idea or concept is the most important aspect of the work," LeWitt wrote. He further maintained that none of these should be viewed as the work itself but merely as a physical realization of an idea: "The idea itself, even if not made visual, is as much a work of art as any finished product." LeWitt also declared that when a work is made in three dimensions, the material in which the work is realized should not draw attention to itself so as to "engage the mind of the viewer rather than his eye or emotions."

In 2006, 49 Three-Part Variations was restored in consultation with the artist and shown in a 2007 exhibition, Sol LeWitt at the AMAM, along with works on loan from the LeWitt Collection. When LeWitt died at the age of seventy-eight, shortly after the exhibition opened, it became a memorial to the artist and his legacy.