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When Features of Futurism and Pieces of Primordiality Collide
Lee Bontecou’s New Gallery at MOMA in a gripping commentary on a tumultuous age
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There was probably no decade of such contrasting forward progress and nihilistic bleakness as the 1960’s; as Mankind reached for the stars in the Space Race and the youth of America took to the streets to advocate for Civil and Woman’s Rights and Peace, political chaos borne from the Bay of Pigs and Cuban Missile Crisis made it seem as if Mutually Assured Destruction was at hand. As always, the art of the period reflected on the events and changes of its time.
A particularly innovative artist whose work could be said to serve as a time capsule from the ’60s is Lee Bontecou, a radical painter and sculptor whose new exhibit All Freedom in Every Sense can currently be seen through August 30 at the Museum of Modern Art. Bontecou achieved success at an early age due to her unique vision and dynamic style. Looking at Bontecou’s pieces at MoMA, one gets the sense of both futuristic and ancient, primeval images being fused into a complete whole. The artist’s works are as often ambiguous as they are captivating; in fact, she claimed that she purposely left most of her works unnamed so her audience could decide what the images and sculptures were for themselves.
In her painting “Untitled 1961”, we can see what would appear to be parts of spaceships and interstellar craft, as Bontecou was said to be enormously interested and excited about space travel; however, there is something undeniably ancient about the piece, and the starships almost look like sea shells or ancient stone. Another painting, “Untitled 1967”, is composed of swirling blacks and reds in motion, making use of Bontecou’s unique method of scratching images from soot onto paper with her nails. A third piece, a sculpture hanging on the wall as if it were a 3D painting, also untitled and from 1961, evokes the barrel of the canon or a black hole; Bontecou was said to have wanted to capture both the wonder, and horror of the universe. Her painting “Tenth Stone” depicts a flower assembled from mechanical parts, while hanging in the center of the exhibition, a sculpture made up of a flurry of metal hints at a bizarre denizen of the sea or the depths of space.
Whatever one makes of Lee Bontecou’s artwork, there’s no denying the pure power and attraction that her art freely exudes. For more information, please visit www.moma.org/visit/calendar/exhibitions/1051.