Lee Lozano 1930-1999

By Aliza Wall

Lee Lozano, General Strike Piece, 1969, offset print, 28 x 21.5 cm., Blanton Museum of Art, Texas, https://blantonmuseum.org.

American painter and conceptual artist Lee Lozano is best known, if at all, for her ultimate rejection of the art world as a whole. Born November 5, 1930, Lenore Knaster adopted the moniker “Lee” at age fourteen in an attempt to create a more enigmatic persona. She attended the University of Chicago from 1948 to 1951, graduating with a degree in philosophy and natural sciences. Five years later she married architect Adrian Lozano who she divorced four years later. During this period, Lozano earned a B.F.A. from the Art Institute of Chicago. 

During the 1960s, Lozano explored a variety of artistic styles. Her earliest works from this period, which are almost entirely untitled, are crude drawings of vulgar sexual motifs which are sometimes accompanied by written puns. In 1963, Lozano began to paint a series of tools including screws, wrenches, pipes, and hammers. These pieces, which are also largely untitled, can be understood as a critique of both the art world and the patriarchy; the use of tools evoking notions of male power and domination. These pieces are, like her earlier overtly sexual drawings, somewhat tongue-in-cheek, evoking the dual linguistic meaning of the word “tool”. In 1967, Lozano began her “Wave” series, a radical departure from her earlier works. The paintings depicted a number of “waveforms” which were pre-determined by a self-generated mathematical system. Each piece was to be completed in one sitting, one supposedly lasting three uninterrupted days. Lozano also deliberately experimented with drugs and alcohol to explore the degree to which they impacted her artistic output. The “Wave” series were featured in the Whitney Museum in 1970, a notable distinction for a female artist at the time. Even in these early works, Lozano began to exhibit the subversive tendencies which would lead to her final gesture. 

In 1969, Lozano began the conceptual pieces for which she would perhaps be best remembered. Like contemporaries Vito Acconci and Chris Burden, Lozano dissolved the distinction between art and life, legitimizing her body as a site for artistic creation. She was unique, however, in the way she meticulously wrote instructions for herself which now exist as proxies to and reminders of the acts themselves. Perhaps her most famous piece, General Strike Piece (1969), documents her total retreat from the art world which she viewed as increasingly hypocritical and capitalistic. In 1971, Lozano began her piece, Decide to Boycott Women. The piece is thought to have been prompted by “her boredom and dissatisfaction with a subcommittee of women involved with the Art Workers Coalition.” Her 1972 piece, Drop Out Piece, represents her total withdrawal from the art world, which she would honour until her death. These pieces can be interpreted as a total rejection of the terms of capitalism and patriarchy. Little is known about Lozano’s life following Drop Out Piece. The artist died in 1999 and was buried in an unmarked grave, perhaps suggesting the culmination of Drop Out Piece. 

Although Lozano did not, until fairly recently, receive sufficient recognition, her practice was deeply radical. Lozano vehemently rejected the distinction between art and life: her final pieces were not discrete happenings but a total change in lifestyle. In the words of Dorothy Lichtenstein, “Lee was punk before punk.” 

Bibliography 

Aron, Nina Renata. “This radical artist ignored women for a project, but then kept up the boycott her whole life.” Timeline. September 29, 2017. https://timeline.com/lee-lozano-boycott-women-20d7e892e6b. 

Eleey, Peter. “Lee Lozano.” Frieze. September 10, 2004. https://frieze.com/article/lee-lozano. 

Gotthardt, Alexxa. “Why These 7 Creatives Disappeared from the Art World.” Arsty. July 5, 2016. https://www.artsy.net/article/artsy-editorial-7-artists-quit-art. 

Hadler, Mona. “Lee Lozano.” Grove Art Online. February 24, 2010. https://www.oxfordartonline.com/groveart/view/10.1093/gao/9781884446054.001.0001/oao-9781884446054-e-7002085949?rskey=hHVQlC&result=1. 

Molesworth, Helen. “Tune in, Turn on, Drop Out: The Rejection of Lee Lozano.” Art Journal 61, no. 4 (2002): 64-73. DOI:10.1080/00043249.2002.10792137. 

Spears, Dorothy. “Lee Lozano , Surely Defiant, Drops In.” New York Times Online. January 5, 2011. https://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/09/arts/design/09lozano.html.