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A free-standing, stepped pyramid made of interlocking, white concrete blocks sits on a grassy lawn, rising above the bushes and low trees behind it. This photograph shows the pyramid with one corner coming straight at us so each side is a zigzag of twenty-four steps. The structure is lit from our left so casts gray shadows to our right. One tall tree behind the pyramid extends off the top edge of the photograph and buildings in the distance have cream-white walls and red roofs.

Sol LeWitt

Four-Sided Pyramid, first installation 1997, fabricated 1999

Sculpture Garden — Southeast Quadrant

Medium

concrete blocks and mortar

Dimensions

overall: 458.2 x 1012.2 x 970.9 cm (180 3/8 x 398 1/2 x 382 1/4 in.)

Credit Line

Gift of the Donald Fisher Family

Accession Number

1998.149.1

Artists / Makers

Sol LeWitt (sculptor) American, 1928 - 2007

Image Use

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Overview

For nearly five decades, starting in the early 1960s, Sol LeWitt was at the forefront of minimal and conceptual art. LeWitt's structures (a term he preferred to sculpture) are generally composed with modular, quasi-architectural forms. For Four-Sided Pyramid, as with many of his works, LeWitt created a plan and a set of instructions to be executed by others. In collaboration with the artist, a team of engineers and stonemasons constructed Four-Sided Pyramid on this site. The terraced pyramid, first employed by LeWitt in the 1960s, relates to the 1961 repeal of early 20th-century setback laws for New York City skyscrapers. The geometric structure of Four-Sided Pyramid also alludes to the ziggurats of ancient Mesopotamia.

Provenance

(Paula Cooper Gallery, New York); purchased 1998 by Mr. and Mrs. Donald G. Fisher, San Francisco; gift 1998 to NGA.

Associated Names

Fisher, Donald G., Mr. and Mrs.

Bibliography

2013: Cigola, Francesca. Art Parks: A Tour of America’s Sculpture Parks and Gardens. New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 2013: 101.

2016: Cox, John Woodrow, Fenit Nrappil and Tara Bahrampour. "Winter Doesn't Take a Holiday." Washington Post 139, no. 173 (February 16, 2016): B1, color ill.