Lee Bontecou

Lee Bontecou’s art challenges the traditional norms of painting and sculpture. Her wall reliefs made of welded steel and scrap materials move conventional ideas of sculpture off of the ground and onto the wall. Throughout the 1960s, she produced artwork with large central holes that became reduced to two smaller openings in Untitled (1966) of the Empire State Plaza Art Collection. Bontecou’s strategic use of color emphasizes depth while the black velvet background intensifies the juxtaposition between the work’s contrasting recesses and bulging forms.

Title: Untitled
Date: 1966
Medium: paint, fiberglass, and leather on welded metal framework
Dimensions: 99 x 91.5 x 25 inches
Accession Number: P67.1.1
Location: South Concourse

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