MASS MoCA’s Memorial to Sol LeWitt, and My Postcard

With the sad news today of the death of Sol LeWitt, this very atypical initiative by MASS MoCA—its plan to transform a three-story, 27,000-square-foot building on its North Adams campus into a “quasi-permanent living archive” for 50 of his wall drawings—seems all the more a stroke of genius. It now becomes a living memorial. The galleries were designed by the artist.
The $9-million project was also designed to fund a three-volume LeWitt catalogue raisonné and an endowment to support the installation for 25 years.
About 10 years ago, when I briefly interviewed and wrote about LeWitt, he did what few interviewees ever do—dropped me a note, thanking me. The very un-LeWittian image on his postcard (which, of course, I saved) is above—a monument by David d’Angers in the Rouen Musėe des Beaux-Arts.
Here’s what he wrote:
Dear Lee, Thanks for the clips. For whatever reason I’ve been declared a non-person by the NY Times.
I don’t remember what occasioned that plaint, but Michael Kimmelman today makes amends with this obit.