The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of April 19, 2024

Untitled

Untitled

1961
(American, 1931–2022)
America, 20th century
Welded steel, canvas, and wire
Overall: 132.1 x 121.6 x 30.5 cm (52 x 47 7/8 x 12 in.)
Contemporary Collection of The Cleveland Museum of Art 1967.77
© Lee Bontecou
Location: 229C Contemporary

Did You Know?

In the early 1960s, Lee Bontecou often used found objects to create her hanging sculptures, including canvas from conveyor belts discarded by a laundry below her East Village apartment and salvaged metal and wire.

Description

In the early 1960s, Bontecou challenged artistic conventions through her creation of three-dimensional wall constructions that were neither sculpture nor painting, but a hybrid of the two. To construct this work, Bontecou used found objects such as welded steel, wire, and various types of canvas. An abstract form, riddled with dark openings that allude to bodily orifices, lunar craters, and gas masks, the work explores the relationship between the living and the machine.
  • Collection of the artist
    1968
    (Leo Castelli Gallery, New York, NY, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art)
    1967-
    The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
  • Cleveland Museum of Art. “Lee Bontecou, Untitled.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 56, no. 2 (February 1969). Reproduced p. 79; mentioned p. 78-80 www.jstor.org
    Cleveland Museum of Art. "Year in Review, 1967," The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 54 (December 1967). Reproduced p. 331, no. 134, mentioned p. 346. www.jstor.org
    “Accessions of American and Canadian Museums: October - December, 1967.” Art Quarterly 31, no. 2 (Summer 1968). Reproduced p. 230; mentioned p. 226
    Cleveland Museum of Art. Art of the Twentieth Century in the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland, OH: Dept. of Art History & Education, CMA, 1969. Mentioned: p. 4 Reproduced: p. 6 archive.org
    Cleveland Museum of Art. The CMA Companion: A Guide to the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2014. Mentioned and reproduced: P. 114
    Cleveland Museum of Art, David Franklin, and C. Griffith Mann. Treasures from the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland, OH: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2012. Reproduced p. 327; mentioned p. 326.
    Henning, Edward B. Art of the Twentieth Century in the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1969. Reproduced p. 6.
    Henning, Edward B. “The Art Museum and the Avant-Garde.” Art Journal 30, no. 1 (Autumn 1970): 20-26. Reproduced p. 22.
    Huntley, David C., ed. Decade .7: Contemporary American Art, 1967. Exh. Cat. Edwardsville, IL: Southern Illinois University, 1967 Cat. No. 5
    Smith, Elizabeth A. T., ed. Lee Bontecou: A Retrospective. Exh. Cat. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, published in association with the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, and the Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, 2003. Reproduced pgs. 39 and 225, Plate 28.
  • Contemporary Gallery Reinstallation 2021. The Cleveland Museum of Art (organizer).
    Vitality of Vision: Works by Women in Sculpture. Contemporary Arts Center, Cincinnati, OH (organizer) (March 20-May 10, 1987).
    Lee Bontecou: A Retrospective. Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, Chicago, IL (organizer) (co-organizer) (March 25-May 7, 1972).
    Year in Review: 1967. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (November 29-December 31, 1967).
    Decade .7. Southern Illinois University, Edwardsville, IL (April 16 -May 16, 1967).
    Sculpture and Relief. Leo Castelli Gallery, New York (May 23-June 1961).
  • {{cite web|title=Untitled|url=false|author=Lee Bontecou|year=1961|access-date=19 April 2024|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1967.77