Two 1980s Sol LeWitt wall drawings at the Carnegie Museum of Art were painted over recently, using regular old Benjamin Moore primer. It was not an art crime, or a case for the city's Graffiti Busters crew, but rather the first step in a renovation and repainting of the two works under the supervision of a LeWitt studio draftsman.

	Carnegie Museum of Art This is the first half of the wall painting designed by Sol LeWitt and installed during the 1985 Carnegie International. The second part, past the black stripe, was completed in 1986. Both are being repainted. Click photo for larger image. Listen In: Draftsman Sarah Heinemann describes how the nearly 80-year-old Sol LeWitt still tailors his artworks for specific places.

The nearly monthlong project has filled the staircase to the museum's second-floor Scaife Galleries with scaffolding, shutting its main entrance down. The work is happening at the same time the museum's outdoor entrance is partially closed, as workers replace some of the granite in the museum's plaza, which was first laid in 1974.

The two entry rooms to the Scaife Galleries are also going through an overhaul. All the work will be completed in advance of three national art events at the museum this spring, but museum director Richard Armstrong said the timing of the long-delayed work is mostly a coincidence.

"It's like when your in-laws are visiting -- you had to clean up the garage eventually," Armstrong said.

The LeWitt reconstruction, of a large wall painting from the 1985 Carnegie International and another the artist donated the following year, is the most significant job. The colors on the two wall paintings, facing the museum's sunny sculpture garden, had faded so greatly since they were installed more than 20 years ago that draftsman Sarah Heinemann mistook a yellow section for grey.

LeWitt, born in Hartford, Conn., in 1928, was a pioneer in the Conceptual art movement in the 1960s, and has produced hundreds of wall paintings, sculptures and other drawings over a four-decade career. He emphasizes the idea of art rather the physical generation of it, famously writing in 1967 that, "The idea becomes a machine that makes the art."

LeWitt, living now in Chester, Conn., creates his art by writing instructions for his artistic works, which are then executed by other artists. Through the first week of April, Heinemann, of Brooklyn, and four local assistants will be doing just that, using simple, pencil-drawn instructions from 1985 and 1986.

LeWitt's notion, Heinemann explained, is "the final product isn't the most important piece, it is the idea. Then it is the collaboration between the artist and the craftsman and the other artists on the idea of it, which is the artwork.

"This," she said, pointing to the first splashes of color on the white walls, "is just the reproduction of the idea."

The works are called "A wall is divided vertically into four equal parts. All one-, two-, three- and four-part combinations of four colors (Wall Drawing 450)" and "A wall is divided vertically into three equal parts. All one-, two- and three-part combinations of three colors. (Wall Drawing 493)." The repainting is being done with acrylic paints that should last longer than the inks used in the 1980s.

LeWitt's instructions are easy -- Heinemann and her assistants smudge mixtures of blue, yellow, red and black onto the walls with rags -- but the execution is not. Across 24 days of work, six days a week, the painters have to be careful to be consistent in their painting styles. They also cannot stand back to look at their work, since it is on a staircase book-ended by a glass wall. And the paintings are giant -- 136 by 29 feet in all.

The work on the outside plaza is simpler but will take at least through May 10 to complete, said the museum's director of exhibitions, Chris Rauhoff.

Workers have walled off much of the Forbes Avenue sidewalk adjacent to the museum, as it replaces about 30 percent of the granite -- imported from a Norway quarry -- by the front door. It was first laid during the Carnegie's 1974 expansion and was crumbling in some places. Richard Serra's sculpture "Carnegie," another work from the 1985 International, will be temporarily off-limits during the renovations.

While the stairs to the Scaife Galleries are closed for the LeWitt work, visitors can walk up a ramp to the museum's second floor. Once they turn left and go into the galleries they will see precisely ... nothing.

The museum's new decorative arts curator Jason Busch asked for a reorganization of the two entry rooms to the galleries, which feature 17th- and 18th-century pieces. The presentation of the art in the rearranged rooms will be denser, Armstrong said, and a wall listing donors' names will be highlighted. The work will be finished late next week.

The Museum of Art will help host three major meetings in coming months: The Decorative Arts Trust, April 19-22; The Association of Art Museum Directors, May 29-June 1; and The Glass Art Society, June 7-9.