Sponsor's Statement

Foreword

Introduction and Acknowledgments

Plates

"All Freedom in Every Sense"

Elizabeth A. T. Smith

"Seek and Hide"

Robert Storr

"Lee Bontecou"

Donald Judd

"Lee Bontecou's Worldscapes"

Mona Hadler

"Inner and Outer Space: Bontecou's Sculpture through Drawing"

Donna De Salvo

List of Plates

Exhibition History

Selected Bibliography

Reproduction Credits

Lenders to the Exhibition

One of the leading figures in late twentieth-century art, Lee Bontecou (b. 1931) became widely known for her sculptures in welded steel and canvas, as well as epoxy and plastic, from the 1960s and 1970s. These powerful and original objects,which have been both critically acclaimed and actively collected, incorporate a variety of figurative, organic, and mechanistic references,suggesting states of transformation between the natural and the man-made, order and chaos,delicacy and ferocity.

This comprehensive monograph -- the first extensive analysis of her art-- presents vivid re-productions of more than fifty sculptures and one hundred drawings, including her celebrated early works as well as later pieces that are little known and have never been publicly exhibited or pub-lished. Along with original essays by Elizabeth A. T.Smith, Robert Storr, Mona Hadler, and Donna De Salvo, this volume also includes a reprint of Donald Judd"s influential 1965 Arts Magazine article on Bontecou.

At last, through this major survey of her work--which accompanies an exhibition organ-ized by the Museum of Contemporary Art,Chicago, and UCLA Hammer Museum and travel-ing to The Museum of Modern Art, NewYork --we are able to reevaluate the career of an artist who has become legendary in the art world be-cause of the impact of her striking early work and the enormous influence it continues to exert on a generation of younger artists.

Sponsor"s Statement

Foreword

Introduction and Acknowledgments

Plates

“All Freedom in Every Sense”

Elizabeth A. T. Smith

“Seek and Hide”

Robert Storr

“Lee Bontecou”

Donald Judd

“Lee Bontecou"s Worldscapes”

Mona Hadler

“Inner and Outer Space: Bontecou"s

Sculpture through Drawing”

Donna De Salvo

List of Plates

Exhibition History

Selected Bibliography

Reproduction Credits

Lenders to the Exhibition