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Identification and Creation

Object Number
1998.232
People
Lee Lozano, American (Newark, NJ 1930 - 1999 Dallas, TX)
Title
No title
Classification
Drawings
Work Type
drawing
Date
1969
Culture
American
Persistent Link
https://hvrd.art/o/194023

Physical Descriptions

Medium
Black ink on blue-ruled white graph paper
Dimensions
27.8 x 22.7 cm (10 15/16 x 8 15/16 in.)
Inscriptions and Marks
  • Signed: black ink, l.r.: FEB, 69
  • inscription: recto, black ink, ball-point and felt tip pen, in artist's hand: FEB, 69PIECEDO TWO PNTNGS ON SAME SIZE STRETCHERS TO BE ATTACHED BACK TO BACK. "WEATHERPROOF" AND HANG FROM LIMB OF TREE AGAINST BACKDROP OF SKY SO THAT ONE PNTNG FACES EAST AND ONE WEST. COMPARE ART AND NATURE. (TO BE DONE SOME TIME IN THE FUTURE WHEN THERE IS ACCESS TO PRIVATE PROPERTY IN THE COUNTRY).JAN, 69PIECE (OR LACE* PIECE)BE THE RECIPIENT OF A GRANT WITHOUT TRYING. INVEST† HALF OF IT ON THE STOCK MARKET FOR AT LEAST SIX MONTHS. PAY THE RENT AND PISS AWAY THE REST. (DEC. 30, 68) (JAN. 16, 69)*BREAD, MONEY †NAT'L GEN'L CORP (NGC), #40 WARRANTS, EXP 9/30/78 (THE GRANT WAS FROM CASSANDRA FOUNDATION, $2,000.)WRITE UP FOR POSS. INCLUSION IN DWAN LANGUAGE SHOW (MAY 19, 69)FEB, 69 WITHDRAWAL PIECEPULL OUT OF A SHOW AT DICK BELLAMY'S TO AVOID HANGING WITH WORK THAT BRINGS YOU DOWN (FEB. 8, 69)MARCH, 69TRANSISTOR RADIO PIECE (MARCH 31, 69)(THIS PIECE WAS INITIATED BY A PATHETIC AND FATUOUS REMARK BY DON JUDD)*. LISTEN TO A TRANSISTOR RADIO WITH THE ANTENNA PULLED ALL THE WAY OUT AND THE SOUND TURNED VERY LOW THROUGHOUT A PANEL DISCUSSION. *LATER I HEARD A RUMOR THAT JUDD WAS DRUNK. HOWEVER, THE PIECE STILL STANDS.

Provenance

Recorded Ownership History
Lee Lozano, New York; Dallas, sold; through [Van Liere Modern and Contemporary Art, Ltd., New York, New York], 1998. [Lawrence Markey, Inc., New York, New York], sold; to Sol and Carol LeWitt, Chester, Connecticut, 1998, gift to Harvard University Art Museums, 1998.

NOTE: Sale through Van Liere from "Lee Lozano / Matrix 135", Hartford CT: Wadsworth Atheneum, 1998.

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line
Harvard Art Museums/Fogg Museum, Gift of Sol and Carol LeWitt
Copyright
© Estate of Lee Lozano / Hauser & Wirth
Accession Year
1998
Object Number
1998.232
Division
Modern and Contemporary Art
Contact
am_moderncontemporary@harvard.edu
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Descriptions

Description
The drawing is a page from Lozano's graph paper notebooks (vol. 2 page 27, no. 391). In keeping with the purely conceptual nature of the artworks it maps out, the drawing consists entirely of text; without any images in the traditional sense. The unbroken perforations along the left edge show that the spiral notebook to which it belonged was carefully dismantled.
Commentary
Lee Lozano is one of the more important abstract and conceptual artists active in the late 1960's and very early 1970's. Not a drawing in the conventional sense, the work is a sheet with text inscribed on it. It is a conceptual sketch, containing the artist's instructions to herself for several conceptual or "performance" art pieces. Like many old master drawings, the artist's revisions are visible on the sheet; "pentimenti" in which Lozano adds details and clarifications in the margins and between the lines.

This work is of particular importance in the trajectory of the artist's career, as one of the conceptual artworks it describes, the "Withdrawal Piece" ("pull out of a show at Dick Bellamy's to avoid hanging with art that brings you down"), adumbrates the artist's crowning work, her "personal and public revolution" in which Lozano withdrew from the art world entirely and began a boycott of all contact with women that continues to this day.

Publication History

  • James Rondeau, Lee Lozano / Matrix 135, brochure, Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art (Hartford, CT, 1998), page 14

Exhibition History

  • Lee Lozano/MATRIX 135, Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, Hartford, 01/18/1998 - 04/19/1998
  • Extreme Connoisseurship, Harvard University Art Museums, Cambridge, 12/08/2001 - 04/14/2002
  • Under Cover: Artists' Sketchbooks, Harvard University Art Museums, Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge, 08/01/2006 - 10/22/2006
  • 32Q: 1100 60’s Experiment, Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, 10/04/2021 - 04/18/2022

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Verification Level

This record has been reviewed by the curatorial staff but may be incomplete. Our records are frequently revised and enhanced. For more information please contact the Division of Modern and Contemporary Art at am_moderncontemporary@harvard.edu