Lee Bontecou

Untitled

Bontecou’s circular, eye-like wall reliefs reflect her interest in materiality and blurring the boundary between painting and sculpture. Bontecou initially created her signature wall works using canvas from old conveyor belts that she salvaged from a laundromat below her New York City apartment. To create the fascinating three-dimensional effect, Bontecou explains her process: “I used to take them [i.e. the conveyor belts] and cut the pieces of canvas and stretch them in there with wire.” Inside these wallworks’ circular openings, Bontecou placed black velvet. Her fascination with astronomy influenced this fabric choice, particularly the infinite vastness of black holes and voids. She stated, “I like space that never stops. [...] Black is like that.”

Untitled was created during the height of the Cold War and the “Space Race” that emerged during this period of geopolitical tension between the Soviet Union and the United States. As such, Bontecou’s crater-like piece seems to directly engage this discourse surrounding exploration into the cosmos. Moreover, as Untitled’s black velvet cavity encourages close-looking, the work also appears to speak to the fear and interest around espionage that plagued this political moment.