Ms. Bontecou is an artist I discovered in the pages of “Janson’s History of Art,” the classic art history textbook used by almost every art history class, since the beginning of time. I remember I liked her work a lot, and back then it was probably due to the fact, it was one of the few contemporary art works in that early edition to be printed in full color. Anyway, I still like her work, although she dropped out of the art scene many years ago and is in her 80s living somewhere in Pennsylvania. I would bet that most of you wouldn’t know her name, even though she is included in many museums across the world, including the Museum of Modern Art, in NYC.

Lee Bontecou is an American artist who was born 15 January 1931 in Providence, Rhode Island.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lee_Bontecou
She is best known for the sculptures she created in 1959 and the 1960s, which challenged artistic conventions of both materials and presentation by hanging on the wall like a painting. They consist of welded steel frames covered with recycled canvas (such as conveyor belts or mail sacks) and other found objects. Her best constructions are at once mechanistic and organic, abstract but evocative of the brutality of war.
http://itp.nyu.edu/~kh1243/blizzog/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/leeBontecou_untitled1960_01.jpg

http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1234/1014065171_ce20427d93.jpg

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-C4mFJzMqPZ4/TaYwEuHp4jI/AAAAAAAAAJM/trm4PREL1MQ/s400/lee+bontecou.jpg

http://www.museum.cornell.edu/hfj/permcoll/amer/img_20c/flit_l.jpg

Thanks to everyone’s concern over yesterday’s shotgun run in. As to Tony’s question, did I did call the police? Yes, I called the Pennsylvania State Police first thing this morning, after mulling it around in my noggin all night. Their first question was “did he aim the shot-gun at you? My response, “I don’t know, I was getting away and had my back to him?” Their response was “unless you can say he fired the gun at you. (Note, the all important words here are, “at you”) then he can fire a gun at will and it’s not a crime or even misdemeanor. “So you mean there is nothing we can do unless I say definitively he was shooting AT me.” Yep, that’s it. It seems pretty lame to me (still shaking) a deranged man, raving at me, who then fires a shotgun, in a direction I can’t swear to, can do all this with impunity. And you say that’s OK? Bottom line for me is WTF! Sorry it’s a wee bit distressing.