Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago

Born in 1931, American artist Lee Bontecou created a strikingly original body of work in sculpture and drawing that was critically acclaimed and actively collected during the 1960s and 70s. She was widely recognized in the early 1960s for her welded steel sculptures in which she incorporated various fabrics, metals, and found objects. The work she has created in recent decades, however, is little known and has never been publicly exhibited, and she has not been the subject of a major exhibition since the MCA surveyed her work in 1972. Presenting forty years of work by an artist who was considered one of the leading figures of her generation and who is among the foremost women artists of the contemporary period, this exhibition will reevaluate Bontecou’s career from today’s perspective in light of the relevance and interest her work continues to hold for many younger artists. This exhibition is co-organized by the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, and the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles and is curated by Elizabeth Smith, James W. Alsdorf Chief Curator at the MCA, with Ann Philbin, Director of the Hammer Museum. The exhibition will travel to The Museum of Modern Art, Queens, New York, from July 28 to September 27, 2004.