Untitled

Untitled is a relief that Lee Bontecou conceived in Rome while studying early Etruscan art and made upon her return to New York. Near her lower Manhattan studio, she could buy bolts, saw blades, and metal wire. The canvas came from salvaged mail bags. She learnt how to weld metal and experimented with soot to approach the right tone of black. While creating these assemblages of found materials, Bontecou listened to radio transmissions about the Vietnam War, reminding her of the Second World War. She incorporated her outrage in the work, along with allusions to her fascination with the Apollo space program. Bontecou did not care whether her works were figurative or abstract; she merely wanted them to expand, like black holes in space.