id: 143617
accession number: 1967.77
share license status: Copyrighted
url: https://clevelandart.org/art/1967.77
updated: 2019-11-18 11:15:54.554000
Untitled, 1961. Lee Bontecou (American, 1931-). Welded steel, canvas and wire; overall: 132.1 x 121.6 x 30.5 cm (52 x 47 7/8 x 12 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Contemporary Collection of The Cleveland Museum of Art 1967.77 © Lee Bontecou
title: Untitled
title in original language:
series:
series in original language:
creation date: 1961
creation date earliest: 1961
creation date latest: 1961
current location: 229C Contemporary
creditline: Contemporary Collection of The Cleveland Museum of Art
copyright: © Lee Bontecou
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culture: America, 20th century
technique: Welded steel, canvas and wire
department: Contemporary Art
collection: CONTEMP - Sculpture
type: Sculpture
find spot:
catalogue raisonne:
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CREATORS
* Lee Bontecou (American, 1931-) - artist
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measurements: Overall: 132.1 x 121.6 x 30.5 cm (52 x 47 7/8 x 12 in.)
state of the work:
edition of the work:
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inscriptions:
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CURRENT EXHIBITIONS
title: Year in Review: 1967
opening date: 1967-11-29T05:00:00
Year in Review: 1967. The Cleveland Museum of Art (November 29-December 31, 1967).
title: Lee Bontecou: A Retrospective
opening date: 1972-03-25T05:00:00
Lee Bontecou: A Retrospective. Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, Chicago, IL (organizer) (co-organizer) (March 25-May 7, 1972); UCLA at Armand Hammer Museum of Art and Cultural Center (October 5, 2003-January 11, 2004); Museum of Modern Art, NY (July 28-September 27, 2004).
title: Vitality of Vision: Works by Women in Sculpture
opening date: 1987-03-20T05:00:00
Vitality of Vision: Works by Women in Sculpture. Contemporary Arts Center, Cincinnati, OH (organizer) (March 20-May 10, 1987).
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LEGACY EXHIBITIONS
* Sculpture and Relief. Leo Castelli Gallery, New York (May 23-June 1961).
* Decade .7. Southern Illinois University, Edwardsville, IL (April 16 -May 16, 1967).
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PROVENANCE
Collection of the artist; Collection of Robert Mayer, Winnetka, IL; acquired by the CMA from Leo Castelli Gallery, New York in 1968.
date:
footnotes:
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fun fact:
digital description:
While making Untitled and other similar works, Bontecou recalled, “At one time I had a joy and excitement about outer space—nothing was known about black holes—just huge, intangible, dangerous, entities, and I felt great excitement when the little Sputnik flew,” offering one interpretation for work’s mysterious orifice. Quoted in Lee Bontecou: A Retrospective. Exh. Cat. (Chicago: Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, 2003): 174.
wall description:
In the early 1960s, Bontecou challenged artistic conventions through the creation of three-dimensional wall constructions that were neither sculpture nor painting, but a hybrid of the two forms. This piece is carefully constructed using found objects including aluminum, welded steel, wire, and various types of canvas. An ambiguous form, with a sporadic network of dark orifices, it alludes to a tension between the organic and the mechanical, the human body, and the savagery of war.
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RELATED WORKS
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CITATIONS
Cleveland Museum of Art. “Lee Bontecou, Untitled.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 56, no. 2 (February 1969).
page number: Reproduced p. 79; mentioned p. 78-80
url: http://www.jstor.org/stable/25152183.
Cleveland Museum of Art. "Year in Review, 1967," The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 54 (December 1967).
page number: Reproduced p. 331, no. 134, mentioned p. 346.
url: http://www.jstor.org/stable/25152218.
“Accessions of American and Canadian Museums: October - December, 1967.” Art Quarterly 31, no. 2 (Summer 1968).
page number: Reproduced p. 230; mentioned p. 226
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Cleveland Museum of Art, David Franklin, and C. Griffith Mann. Treasures from the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland, OH: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2012.
page number: Reproduced p. 327; mentioned p. 326.
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Henning, Edward B. Art of the Twentieth Century in the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1969.
page number: Reproduced p. 6.
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Henning, Edward B. “The Art Museum and the Avant-Garde.” Art Journal 30, no. 1 (Autumn 1970): 20-26.
page number: Reproduced p. 22.
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Huntley, David C., ed. Decade .7: Contemporary American Art, 1967. Exh. Cat. Edwardsville, IL: Southern Illinois University, 1967
page number: Cat. No. 5
url:
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.
page number: Reproduced pgs. 39 and 225, Plate 28.
url:
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IMAGES