Irregular Grid 

Sol LeWitt made this painting, Irregular Grid, using paint on canvas. The blue background is activated by the overlay of red lines, which are arranged in clusters as if trying to define the grid. LeWitt's interest was in ideas rather than the slick finish of a painting. The looseness of the mark-making, the visible hand of the artist, this is crucial. The painting offers the perfect excuse to think about artistic labor. Here, labor is expressed not through virtuosity, but repetition and slight variation. It makes a virtue of necessity. This raises the question of what it means to paint a painting now, in an era of mass production. It is this tension, between the idea of mechanical reproduction and the uniqueness of the handmade, that makes this painting so intriguing. It shows how an artist can acknowledge industrialization while reclaiming value through process and the human touch.