General & Miscellaneous American Art, Drawings, General & Miscellaneous Sculpture
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Overview
One of the leading female artists of the late 20th century, Lee Bontecou (b. 1931) became widely known for her welded steel sculptures and plastic and epoxy molded assemblages from the 1960s and 1970s. Her powerful and original constructions, which were both critically acclaimed and actively collected, evoked natural phenomena and organic biological life even as they grew more abstract. This monograph—the first extensive analysis of her art—presents some 50 sculptures and more than 100 drawings, including her celebrated early works as well as later pieces that are little known and have never been publicly exhibited or published. Along with four original essays, this volume also includes a reprint of Donald Judd's influential 1965 Arts Magazine article on Bontecou.At last, through this major survey of her work—which accompanies an exhibition organized by the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, and ULCA Hammer Museum—we are able to reevaluate the career of an artist who has become legendary in the art world because of the impact of her striking early work and the enormous influence she continues to have on younger artists.Author Bio: Elizabeth A. T. Smith, James W. Alsdorf Chief Curator at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, is the curator of this retrospective on Lee Bontecou. Robert Storr is Rosalie Solow Professor of Modern Art at the Institute of Fine Arts of New York University. Donna DeSalvo is senior curator at Tate Modern in London. Mona Hadler is an art historian.
Editorials
Library Journal
Her welded steel and canvas wall relief hangs in the entryway of the New York State Theater at Lincoln Center, and she had shows at the Leo Castelli Gallery, the MoMA New York, and the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago, from 1960 through the early 1970s. Her abstract sculptures, which alluded to space travel as much as to the natural world, drew critical attention, most famously by Donald Judd in Art Magazine. And yet Lee Bontecou (b. 1931) has hidden from view since a mid-career retrospective in 1972. As this exhibition catalog makes clear, when she quit the art scene she didn't quit making art. Gathered for this retrospective are not only the works that made her famous but those created during her relative seclusion. She has recently incorporated porcelain, plastics, and wire into fantastic, complex new forms and throughout has continued drawing. The 50 sculptures and 100 drawings shown here were assembled by Smith, a curator at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago, where the exhibition is on display through May 30 (after opening at the UCLA Hammer Museum, later to travel to MoMA Queens). Essays by Robert Storr and others discuss possible influences, themes, and contexts. The show will be a revelation to many, and this fine catalog is exciting to see.-Carolyn Kuebler, "Library Journal" Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.Book Details
Published
September 22, 2003
Publisher
Chicago : Museum of Contemporary Art ; 2003.
Pages
140
Format
Hardcover
ISBN
9780810946187