- Untitled
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In 1959, while enrolled at the Art Students League of New York, Lee Bontecou began constructing abstract hybrids of painting and sculpture. To create these objects, Bontecou salvaged bits of industrial canvas. She would suture the canvas scraps together with wire, adhering them to an underlying structure of welded metal. The resulting wall reliefs grew progressively in size over the years. Eventually she incorporated found objects such as gas masks, helmets, bits of ragged metal, or a saw blade, as seen here.
An eerie topological abstraction, Untitled hangs on the wall, embodying the interest of Minimalist artists to overcome the division between painting and sculpture. The rough-hewn fabrics and their ocular shapes are organic, while the salvaged steel and saw blade suggest a violent, destructive, life-threatening force. The seemingly ruptured surfaces reveal mysterious inner spaces. At once mechanistic and sexual, abstract yet evocative of the brutal forces of war, Bontecou's works are both of their time and distinctly her own.
Provenance[Leo Castelli Gallery, New York]; purchased by Dominique and John de Menil, Houston; given to MFAH, 1962.
Exhibition History"American Paintings from Houston Collections," Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, April 20–June 3, 1962.
"Space and Fantasy: A Selection," Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, January 25–February 14, 1963.
"Some Recent Accessions 1961-1963," Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, May 4–June 2, 1963.
"Sculpture from the Museum of Modern Art, New York," Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, December 13, 1963–April 23, 1964.
"Modern Sculpture in Houston," Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, August 14–September 15, 1974.
"Selections from the Permanent Collection," Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, November 23, 1976–January 23, 1977.
"The Americans: Collage 1950-1982," Contemporary Arts Museum, Houston, July 10–October 3, 1982.
"A Century of Modern Sculpture 1882-1982," Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, January 14, 1983–January 31, 1984.
"Direction and Diversity: Twentieth Century Art in the Museum Collection," Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, May 21–September 3, 1988.
"Lee Bontecou: Sculpture and Drawings of the 1960s," Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, March 28–May 16, 1993; Parrish Museum of Art, Southampton Village, New York, September 19–November 14, 1993; Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, January 2–February 27, 1994.
"Modernism in a Century of Change, From Object to Icon: The Art of Assemblage," Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, June 21–August 30, 1998.
"American Spectrum: Paintings and Sculpture from the Smith College Museum of Art," Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, March 4–May 27, 2001.
"Art at Midcentury: Spotlight on the Collection of the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston," Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, April 13–September 3, 2001.
"Lee Bontecou Retrospective," Hammer Museum, University of California, Los Angeles, October 4, 2003–January 12, 2004; Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, February 23–May 24, 2004; Museum of Modern Art, New York, August 18–November 8, 2004.
"A Modern Patronage: de Menil Gifts to American and European Museums," The Menil Collection, Houston, June 8–September 16, 2007.
"Modern and Contemporary Masterworks from the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston," Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, December 8, 2007–March 2, 2008.
"Action/Abstraction: Abstract Expressionism and Postwar America," The Jewish Museum, New York, May 4–September 21, 2008; Saint Louis Art Museum, October 19, 2008–January 11, 2009; Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, February 13–June 16, 2009.
"Destroying the Picture: Painting the Void, 1949-1962," Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, October 6, 2012–January 14, 2013; Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, February 16–June 2, 2013.
"Postwar - Art between the Pacific and Atlantic 1945-1965," Haus der Kunst, Munich, October 14, 2016–March 26, 2017.
Cataloguing data may change with further research.
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