Lee Bontecou (born 1931) is a U.S. artist, best known for her work in the 1960s, which art critic Arthur Danto describes as "fierce", reminiscent of 17th-century scientist Robert Hooke's Micrographia, lying "at the intersection of magnified insects, battle masks, and armored chariots..." [Danto 2004] After a major level of success in the 1960s -- she showed at Leo Castelli 's gallery in 1960 and there is a large piece of hers in the State Theater of New York City's Lincoln Center -- she retired from the art world to Orbisonia, Pennsylvania. [Danto 2004]

A Fulbright Scholarship took her to Rome, Italy in the late 1950s. During part of the 1960s, she taught at Brooklyn College. After decades of obscurity, she was brought back to public attention by a 2004 retrospective at MoMA-Queens . The retrospective included both work from her public, art-world career and an extensive display of work done after retreating from the public view. [Danto 2004] Bontecou's work was also included in Carnegie Museum of Art Carnegie International 2004-5 exhibit in Pittsburgh.

According to Danto, "Though here pieces are three-dimensional, they are all frontal and are intended to hang at eye level." [Danto 2004]

Reference

Arthur Danto, "A Tribe Called Quest", The Nation, September 27, 2004, p.40-43.