Show HN: Sol LeWitt-style instruction-based drawings in the browser

[intervolz]

Sol LeWitt was a conceptual artist who never touched his own walls.

He wrote instructions and other people executed them, the original prompt engineer!

I bookmarked a project called "Solving Sol" seven years ago and made a repo in 2018. Committed a README. Never pushed anything else.

Fast forward to 2026, I finally built it.

https://intervolz.com/sollewitt/

[holly01]

I want to thank you for making for this, I’m actually from North Adams and have spent countless hours in the Sol LeWitt exhibit (especially Wall Drawing 880[0], its out of the way on the third floor with a bench and is a wonderful place to think, along with it being a lovely piece of art). Going through these animations made me feel very nostalgic for home. The website is very well made and I feel you really captured the spirit of LeWitt’s art.

Also, if you do end up going out to the Berkshires I’d recommend going during the mid/late summer, everyone comes up in the fall to see the leaves but I think the summer is much more beautiful :)

[0] https://massmoca.org/event/walldrawing880/

[Guillaume86]

I remember writing a parser for some SL instructions following an HN thread, seems like it was 13 years ago -_- : https://github.com/guillaume86/SolLewitt

[acomjean]

Fun and interesting!

It does loose a little of the “immersiveness” (large walls are covered by the patterns)but makes up for it in the fine details.

The mass moca exhibit is good if you find yourself in north Adams ma. One of my profile photo is in front of a Sol Lewitt wall.

[intervolz]

Thank you for the positive feedback. The MASS MOCA is definitely on my must-see museum list. It should scale if you have a projector :)

[holly01]

Be sure to check out The Clark in Williamstown when you’re up there (in the town over from where Mass Moca is), the art museums in that little corner of massachusetts are blow the water out of then most major cities museums :)

[rickydroll]

Adding to the plethora of comments about visiting Mass MoCA and the Clark Institute, I'd recommend another stop: head over to Route 2 in Troy, New York, and look for the restaurant Ali Baba. It's a nice little Turkish place in the middle of "student slums", and it's a must-stop for lunch whenever we are in the area.

I recommend the Route 2 path into Troy because it passes through the Tacoma Ridge State Forest and offers plenty of nice twisties. If you travel from Troy back to Williamstown in mid to late spring, you see a vivid demonstration of how seasons vary with altitude. At the bottom of the mini mountains, you'll see the leaves with the rich green color of spring, and as the altitude climbs, you'll notice that the trees become the pale yellow of early spring, and sometimes the trees at the top are just buds.

If you're coming from Boston, I highly recommend stopping in Shelburne Falls to visit the Bridge of Flowers. Downtown Greenville has some nice antique stops. Tucker Falls. Theoretically, it has fossil beds in the area, but I've never actually gotten around to visiting them. Zoar has a nice zipline setup, but it's sufficiently popular that you'll need to make reservations.

The trip from Boston via Route 2 to Williamstown is a great way to spend a weekend. The North Adams/Williamstown area is a great place to spend a weekend. I've always enjoyed doing that.

Although, come to think of it, we are approaching maple sugaring season, and there are some good places out there to blow out your pancreas with fresh, rich Grade A dark New England maple syrup.

[andrenotgiant]

Love it. Very cool.

Brings back amazing memories from when I was in high school. A friend invited me to come to the museum for some drawing thing, turned out I got to participate in making a Sol Lewitt drawing. Had no idea who he was at the time but it was such a unique experience.

We were in an empty gallery room with a (I believe) BLACK painted wall with a faint grid on it and we were given an old hat with a bunch of cards in it. There were 4 or 5 highschool kids and we each took turns drawing a card out of the hat and drawing the shape from the card on consecutive grid squares on the wall. The shapes were basic lines and semi-circles. It was lots of fun and the end effect was a very beautiful line drawing mural.

[roxolotl]

I love these line drawings. For those inspired by this implementation of them go visit MassMOCA. They are remarkable in person. Plan a long weekend. Spend a day or two at the museum then hike up Greylock the other day.

Thank you so much for creating this!

[damon_c]

I love this. Thanks.

In case anyone hasn't visited the Sol LeWitt installation at MASS MoCA in North Adams MA, do check it out. They usually have some other good stuff there too.

[intervolz]

Thank you for checking it out :)

[behole]

I love Sol LeWitt! I used to go to DÍA Beacon once a month to stare at their LeWitt collection!

This is rad! Thanks for the reminder!

[dominictorresmo]

I think I'll never understand those types of art

[sturbes]

very cool! FYI the original project mentioned is at https://solvingsol.com/. open contribution at https://github.com/wholepixel/solving-sol

[TomWhitwell]

Love it, could you do Harold Cohen next?