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Part of Manhattan with Central Park, Rockefeller Center, and Lincoln Center Removed

Sol LeWitt American
1978
Not on view
Although best known for his wall drawings, modular structures, and writings on Conceptual art, LeWitt engaged with photography throughout his career. Between 1967 and 1979, he created a series of small-scale works in which he cut geometric shapes out of commercially produced aerial photographs and maps of cities, including Florence, Amsterdam, London, Chicago, and New York. In some cases, he determined the outlines of the shapes by connecting points related to his own personal geography, such as various places where he lived in Lower Manhattan. Here, LeWitt sliced into Manhattan’s ordered grid—viewed from the perspective of an airplane flying north—removing the long rectangle of Central Park along with the smaller, but symbolically loaded, sites of Rockefeller and Lincoln Centers. By excising these urban landmarks, LeWitt prompts the viewer to consider the ways in which nature, business, and creative culture are defined and circumscribed within the geography of the city.

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: Part of Manhattan with Central Park, Rockefeller Center, and Lincoln Center Removed
  • Artist: Sol LeWitt (American, Hartford, Connecticut 1928–2007 New York)
  • Date: 1978
  • Medium: Gelatin silver print
  • Dimensions: Image: 15 3/4 × 15 3/4 in. (40 × 40 cm)
    Sheet: 15 3/4 × 15 3/4 in. (40 × 40 cm)
    Framed: 18 5/8 × 18 5/8 × 1 1/4 in. (47.3 × 47.3 × 3.2 cm)
  • Classification: Photographs
  • Credit Line: Gift of Marlene Nathan Meyerson, 2017
  • Object Number: 2017.392.2
  • Rights and Reproduction: © 2025 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
  • Curatorial Department: Photographs

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