You should head over to Tablet for a nice perspective on the legacy of Sol LeWitt’s work at synagogues and Jewish institutions.
In 2001, LeWitt co-designed the Connecticut synagogue Beth Shalom Rodfe Zedek with Stephen Lloyd, where the artist installed a Star of David in his iconic Minimalist style over the ark doors. Last year, the synagogue replicated that work onto 100 yarmulkes–an endeavor made difficult due to the yarmulke’s convex form–which became a hit with “art-world machers like Whitney Museum director Adam Weinberg, gallerist James Cohan, and Pace Prints president Dick Solomon,” all of which acquired one.
LeWitt, who died in 2007, was described by his wife Carol as “a very, very observant nonbeliever.” Keeping in tune with his priorities, he got involved in designing Beth Shalom Rodfe Zedek “mostly because he worried about the prospect of ‘strip-mall synagogue architecture.'”
