History of Art: Lee Bontecou

Art of the 20th Century

Art Styles in 20th century Art Map

Lee Bontecou

Lee Bontecou

born 1931

American artist born in Providence, Rhode Island. She studied at the Art Students League, New York, 1952-5 under William Zorach and John Hovannes. Awarded a Fulbright Fellowship to Rome 1957-8. First one-woman exhibition (of bronzes) at Gallery G, New York, 1959. Began in 1959 to make relief constructions out of canvas, wire and welded steel, with mysterious openings often protected by grills or menacing metal jaws, and suggestive of mouths, vaginas etc. Turned in 1967 to making free-standing sculptures in vacuum-formed plastic of fish and flowers. Lives in New York.