Welded steel, porcelain, wire mesh, canvas, grommets, and wire
Not on view
For many years Bontecou's sculptures and drawings featured billowing sail-like forms that implied movement. Here she literally set sculpture into motion. In this slowly whirling galaxy of forms, small porcelain orbs and sections of wire mesh are connected to an intricate network of piano wire that radiates from a central blue sphere. Typical of Bontecou's work, the sphere conjures an array of associations—a planet, a satellite, an eye, and a blowfish or other primordial-looking sea creature.
Bontecou has characterized the process of making this body of work as akin to drawing in space: "I always wanted to move away from the wall, so I began hanging the works. I started small, combining porcelain, different clays, and screen. The process was getting closer to drawing, which is so free. And it can go on endlessly."
Lee Bontecou: All Freedom in Every Sense, April 21–August 30, 2010.
Publication excerpt from The Museum of Modern Art, MoMA Highlights since 1980 , New York: The Museum of Modern Art, 2007, p. 31.
At once organic and galactic, tectonic and diaphanous, this untitled work exemplifies Bontecou’s three–dimensional explorations of balance, form, and movement. This tenuous sculpture is suspended from the ceiling in a swirl of welded steel, porcelain, piano wire, canvas, and wire mesh, a visual symphony in structure and poise. With each addition of wires and beads, Bontecou achieved a remarkable effect: the scattering of structural elements within a cosmological system of gravity–defying levitation that slowly and delicately swivels in space.
After attaining success in the early 1960s with her prints, drawings, and welded–steel–and–canvas reliefs, in the 1970s Bontecou moved from New York to rural Pennsylvania with her husband and daughter. She continued to teach at Brooklyn College until 1991, yet for nearly thirty years she remained removed from the demands and concerns of the art world. Of the spectacular constructions, like this one, that she made during this period of immense productivity and solitude, Bontecou has said, "I think they're more hopeful than some of the things I've done. I’ve been thinking more of space and just letting things flow and encompassing as much as I can about the world."
Explore more
From MoMA Design Store
Installation views
We have identified this work in the following photos from our exhibition history.
Licensing
Artwork or archival images
If you would like to reproduce an image of a work of art in MoMA's collection, or an image of a MoMA publication or archival material (including installation views, checklists, and press releases), please contact Art Resource (publication in North America) or Scala Archives (publication in all other geographic locations).
Audio and film clips
MoMA licenses archival audio and select out of copyright film clips from our film collection. At this time, MoMA produced video cannot be licensed by MoMA/Scala. All requests to license archival audio or out of copyright film clips should be addressed to Scala Archives at [email protected]. Motion picture film stills cannot be licensed by MoMA/Scala. For access to motion picture film stills for research purposes, please contact the Film Study Center at [email protected]. For more information about film loans and our Circulating Film and Video Library, please visit Circulating Film and Video Library.
Text from a publication or the archives
If you would like to reproduce text from a MoMA publication, please email [email protected]. If you would like to publish text from MoMA's archival materials, please fill out this permission form and send to [email protected].
Feedback
This record is a work in progress. If you have additional information or spotted an error, please fill out this feedback form.