Sol Lewitt

A work of art may be understood as a conductor from the artist's mind to the viewer's. But it may never reach the viewer, or it may never leave the artist's mind.

Once it is out of his hand the artist has no control over the way a viewer will perceive the work. Different people will understand the same thing in a different way.

The system is the work of art; the visual work of art is the proof of the System. The visual aspect can't be understood without understanding the system. It isn't what it looks like but what it is that is of basic importance.

Artists are mystics rather than rationalists. They leap to conclusions that logic cannot reach.

Buying books was a way anyone could acquire a work of art for very little.

Unless you're involved with thinking about what you're doing, you end up doing the same thing over and over, and that becomes tedious and, in the end, defeating.

Every generation renews itself in its own way; there's always a reaction against whatever is standard.

You shouldn't be a prisoner of your own ideas.

Conceptual art became the liberating idea that gave the art of the next 40 years its real impetus.

When artists make art, they shouldn't question whether it is permissible to do one thing or another.

Artists teach critics what to think. Critics repeat what the artists teach them.

All intervening steps, scribbles, sketches, drawings, failed work models, studies thoughts, conversations, are of interest. Those that show the thought process of the artist are sometimes more interesting than the final product

I was not interested in irony; I wanted to emphasize the primacy of the idea in making art

A blind man can make art if what is in his mind can be passed to another mind in some tangible form.

Most ideas that are successful are ludicrously simple

In conceptual art the idea or concept is the most important aspect of the work

Ideas alone can be works of art; they are in a chain of development that may eventually find some form. All ideas need not be made physical.

When words such as painting and sculpture are used, they connote a whole tradition and imply a consequent acceptance of this tradition, thus placing limitations on the artist who would be reluctant to make art that goes beyond the limitations.

Also, since art is a vehicle for the transmission of ideas through form, the reproduction of the form only reinforces the concept. It is the idea that is being reproduced. Anyone who understands the work of art owns it. We all own the Mona Lisa.

I wasn't really that interested in objects. I was interested in ideas.

All of the significant art of today stems from Conceptual art. This includes the art of installation, political, feminist and socially directed art.