Graphic Design class
The High School of Art & Design, New York
Juniors
The Marian Goodman Gallery is pleased to have worked in collaboration with The High School of Art & Design’s Graphic Design teacher Andrew Bencsko and his Junior class around the exhibition “Multiples, Inc.: 1965-1992” which took place at MGG NY in January-February 2021.
The Graphic Design high school students were introduced to the work of conceptual artist Sol LeWitt. We studied Windows (1980), an edition comprised of 72 ektachromes mounted on board, with photographs the artist took while traveling in the 1970s. The repetition and variation of the subject matter, organized following a grid, allow for a narrative and journey to unfold. The window as a threshold to experience the elsewhere found a resonance with the students’ daily life in 2020-2021, as they were strictly working from home due to the pandemic. In their daily life, the window embodied the longing for escape and became the starting point for their Zine project.
"Peering out the window became one of my favorite things to do. Whenever I felt overworked about school or simply had a lot of thoughts going in my head, the window became that escape."
—Atenea Maldonado
Multiples, Inc. published some of Sol LeWitt’s most important artist books, including Color Grids (1977), and a number of his photo-books editions: Cock Fight Dance (1980), Sunset Sunrise at Praiano (1980), and Autobiography (1980). Known primarily as an installation artist and sculptor, LeWitt was among the first wave of conceptual artists who helped to establish a new radical framework for the publication-as-artwork. Using the page as a medium, LeWitt explored seriality, sequencing, and storytelling through a visual score of geometric forms and photography as documentation.
Sol LeWitt's artist's book Autobiography (1980) consists of 1101 black-and-white photographs of the artist’s home and studio in downtown New York City – or more specifically, of the objects within the artist’s home and studio. Taking note of the artist's process, the Junior Graphic Design students were asked to look around their own home and think about ways in which their environment, the objects they are surrounded with, and the music they listen to, could come together to represent themselves.
LESSON PLAN
"My home became a place of wilderness as I paid close attention to every single detail that surrounded me. Acknowledging all the colors, textures, sizes and purpose all these objects had, made me realize how even the smallest things can bring inspiration and curiosity."
—Atenea Maldonado
