Lee Bontecou

Lee Bontecou is one of the few women artists to have achieved broad recognition in the 1960s. Bontecou’s predominantly abstract work has consistently incorporated figurative, organic, and mechanistic references to states of transformation between the natural and the man-made. From the explosive intricacy of her drawings, to her sculptures—in which geometric fragments of canvas and other materials are stretched over and fastened onto welded metal framework—Bontecou’s greatest preoccupation as an artist has been to encompass "as much of life as possible—no barriers—no boundaries—all freedom in every sense".

Rising to prominence in the 1960s, Bontecou joined Leo Castelli’s New York gallery where she became the only female among a stable of artists that included Jasper Johns, Donald Judd, Robert Rauschenberg, Frank Stella and Andy Warhol. The breakthrough works she became known for incorporated scavenged steel frameworks, stretched canvases, fabric elements and machinery as they embraced modernism’s aestheticization of industrial materials and in some cases, resembled brutal machines of war. She has revealed that hearing radio broadcasts about the cold war, terrorist attacks and horrific events in Africa as she worked in her studio directly influenced the work she was making. In later years (c.1967-71) as she began to escape her depression, her work shifted from the aggressive wall reliefs to vacuum-formed translucent plastic sculptures resembling natural, light, organic forms. Theses plastic representations of nature juxtapose fragility and elegance with the danger of society’s greed and degradation of the natural world. In 1972 Bontecou left Castelli’s gallery to focus on her family in a self imposed hiatus. Although she continued to make work throughout the next three decades, she retreated from the art world and chose not to exhibit new work again until 2003.

Bontecou’s work became the inspiration for a group of younger artists, including Eva Hesse who in 1965 commented “I am amazed at what that woman can do…This was the unveiling to me of what can be done…the complexity of her structures, what is involved, absolutely floored me.” Donald Judd further built upon Bontecou’s renown by championing the artist’s work in reviews and essays; an indication of the artist’s incredible impact and achievement among her peers.