LeWitt was linked to various movements, including conceptual art and minimalism, and was prolific in a wide range of media ranging from painting, drawing and printmaking to sculpture, wall murals and installation. The guiding principles of his work were line, geometry, ratios, patterns and formulas. Believing above all else that the artist is primarily a generator of ideas, his work was a vital stepping stone between the modern and postmodern eras. 

LeWitt's work often assumed a basic physical form, though not always one produced by his own hands. Taking inspiration from the structure of a medieval workshop, in which the master conceives of a work and apprentices carry out his instructions based on preliminary drawings, LeWitt would provide an assistant or a group of assistants with directions for producing a work of art. The instructions would be left deliberately vague, in order to surrender control and admit the possibility of the work taking a different direction to that of the original concept. In this way, LeWitt challenged fundamental beliefs about art, including the authority of the artist in the production of a work.