Sol LeWitt: Wall Drawing No. 309

Sol LeWitt's Wall Drawing No. 309 is on view at the Utah Museum of Contemporary Art (UMOCA), where it'll stay through March 25, 2027. It's a large-scale mural on the east wall of the museum lobby at 20 S. West Temple in Salt Lake City, and it's been there since March 25, 2025.

The piece is on loan from the National Gallery of Art as part of its 'Across the Nation' program, which is bringing key works from the Gallery's collection to regional museums across the U.S. to mark the country's 250th anniversary. The program places works by renowned artists at ten partner museums, with each institution curating its selection to introduce new artists and perspectives to its community. LeWitt is one of those names.

If you're not familiar with him, LeWitt was a central figure in what critic Lucy Lippard called the 'dematerialization of the art object.' He famously put it this way: 'the idea becomes a machine that makes the art.' His wall drawings, which he first conceived in 1968, often take the form of massive murals that stretch from wall to ceiling. Because the work exists as a set of instructions rather than a single physical object, these drawings continue to be realized long after his death in 2007.

Wall Drawing No. 309 is one of those instructions brought to life. This particular one dates back to 1978, so what you're seeing on the wall is a set of directions written decades ago and executed here in Salt Lake City. It's a good way to get a sense of how his process worked: the art isn't the physical paint on the wall, but the idea that allows it to be recreated anywhere.

UMOCA is a non-collecting institution, which means it doesn't hold a permanent collection of its own. It traces its roots back to the Art Barn Association founded in 1931 and has been in its West Temple home since 1979. You can find the mural on the east wall of the entrance lobby, on view through March 25, 2027.