Untitled , 1960

Lee Bontecou is acclaimed for her synthesis of spatial, organic, and synthetic elements, incorporating disparate components of the natural and industrial worlds. The focus here is on works on paper from 1958 through 2008 in a variety of media including the soot drawings from Bontecou’s early torch experiments, to works created with graphite, silver pencil, colored pencil, and casein. The presentation includes a selection of more than ten drawings highlighting the artist’s archetypal imagery: ocular shapes, mechanical abstractions, aquatic elements, and biological forms. A sculpture from 1996 constructed with steel, porcelain, epoxy, and wire hangs as a counterpoint to the drawings.

Lee Bontecou (born 1931 in Providence, Rhode Island) received a Fulbright Scholarship to travel to Rome in 1957. Her sculptures of steel, wire, and sooted canvas were first shown in 1960. Since 1983, she has added porcelain components to her suspended sculptures. Recent exhibitions include showa at the Menil Collection and the Gemeentemuseum. In 2019, Bontecou received the Gold Medal for Sculpture from the American Academy of Arts and Letters.