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In: Frieze, London/UK, October 2006, 242-247. Whether making drawings, paintings or conceptual projects ‘boycotting’ women and dropping out from the art world, Lee Lozano wanted to ‘participate only in a total revolution simultaneously personal and public’ by Bruce Hainley She was horn ‘Nov. 5.1930, 4:25 PM NEWARK NJ’ and considered the citation an alphanumerie confluence marking time and space, inflected with scientific as well asastrologieal specificity ~ her ‘oN1¥ 1a ‘NAME. AS she noted in a fascinating skeletal autobiographical text penned in 1970 on a “sheet of graph paper; any Further alterations were considered a ‘HANG OF NAME, Whether the given nomenclature, Lenore Knaster, of her parents three days after her birth of that ‘of her awn choice or situation, A Searpio, she ‘marked her second change of name, to Lee Knaster,in December 1944, the year that she sel actualized a ‘RiJECTION OF TRADITION: AL AMERICAN MIDDLE-CLASS FEMALE TRIP. ‘The artist's trip went elsewhere, While autobiography, written almost in the third-person, biographically, begins ‘by noting her name-changes, continies by listing her academic degrees (B.A. from the University of Chicago, 1948-51: B.A. from “The Axt Institute of Chieago, 1956-60), and tenis by listing her gallery representation (a late language piece, from 1998, pokes fun at the idea of someone asking her to list all her collectors ~ [or "PURCHASES & PURCHASERS" asshe puts it] ~ whieh she proceeds to do by lass, occupation, gencer, sexuality and purpose, the information presented between these lists, with fee erossings-out, starkly pares away any fat "TRAVEL. IN EUROPE, 1060-64 PSYCHOANALYSIS, 1957-0 ABORTION, 1955 MARRIAGE, 1956-60 SPX, 1931- CONTINUING RUGS, 1959, ART, 1935 ‘SCIENCE, 1940! Presented inthe same hand and in block capitals, at the same moment, sud in the same manner as other language pieces, many of which also have a starting date and proceed into the Future, conrinvs’, it not ‘lear thatthe autobiography is nota piece itselE She investigated the atomic boundaries of lifeand art although, like Marie Curie’s ‘experiments with radioactivity, not without psychic and or mortal consecutence. er marriage to Adrian Lozano, a Mexican-born architect, provided her third change of name (AUG. 1956.10 Lue Lozavo, BUFATMOUGH SHE WAS DINORETD ArMRODK YEAS, POD THAT" APPARENIY FNCILDED TWAS NOTHERLASFCHANGE, CAWUANDIE HAS NOILD How SHE: WANTED, AFSOM EOIN ONLY 1D BE XNOW AS "E, TN CORR IEMIENS A> A oak’ eaves OvER MIE WT? BUTE InmbeVALoR RANDOM. JANE NEDOL ONE OF mE ¥HDvTO#S OPANDAS STATEM ENT(PLBISIED 19 {CONUNCHON WH! ASHEN SHE co-oWGANIZED vim Donat Daos. 181983 PSI IN New Vouk, ‘Ansmact PaIvANG 1960-60", Wri INaDED LazaNo's PAINDNS AND, HW ADDIE TON, GARNERED ON OF HER AST PURISHED SPSL ALOUTHIER WORK), HAS Whee TAT 244 frieze | October 2006 Grpiteand Conte eyo ‘when she nnd her eolleague Maurice Poirier ‘conducted the interview with Lozano by telephone, Poirier manned the phone while Necol listened “AE the beginning ofthe interview, she [Lo- ‘zano] also talked about her name change and tenuous connection with, as she put it, the individual who made the paintings, among other topies related to her bronder defn on of art, sayingein part “Art is lot more interesting than just canvases and seulptures, ravings and prints, and things like that? Since Neeol and Deol’ show concerned abstract painting, certain other matters were edited out of the text, Again Nevol writes: “We edited out some introductory coms ‘ments regarvling her name changes, a com. :ment about her desire to “have an existence that was like art", There is more, but not related to her text works but more about her feelings. She called herself’, reference to enengy: for example. ‘The new art since I have anew name is involving energy." Not existence av art. but a desire to have an existence like art Te could be argued that her endeavours had always involved energy. As her autobiogra: phy stated, sexual energy was relevane from 19310n, when she would have been a year ld. Her early paintings pack their punch with tools: her bold drawings, aften in erayon ~ the artist called them ‘comix’ - emphasized te rowdy, sexual potential of hardcore hard ‘ware, often in bold textual components: “he save her a good serewing he said’ aver a col ourful graphic ofa hand sawing timber, the action braced by a foot in a man's dress shoe, Even within the boring she saw potential for drilling energy:a work on paper in graphite and conté crayon depietsa pistol-like electric sill, one part ofits easing removed to reveal all ts mechanisms, the heart of its motor. She called it 4 Boring Dressing (1963). In 1967 the artist madea lst oher titles of paintings, “1964-67 (muy), stressing that they were ~ as she underlined her block eapitals at the page {op ~ ‘ALL VERIS: REAM, SPIN, VEER, SPAN, CROSS, RAM, PEF, CHARGE, PITCH, VERGE, (CROOK, SPLIT, JUT, HACK, BREACH, STROKE, stop’ Her ist sin advance of Richard Ser- ras ‘Verb List Compilation: Actions to Relate to Oneself” from 1967-8. Serra was under the influence of Lozano, as her Dialogue Diere clarifies, in every manner. On 7 May 1960: ‘serra comes avera litle high om eer & ‘no food. just into a dialogue with him (we've been smoking saret’s hash) when he gets an atiaek (too stoned), falls off chair to oor ‘with a erash, has "convulsions" & passes ‘out fater he feels sick, lies down on bed until saret comes over:® "The “ALL VERBS’ FOR OF HERP AINTNGS! PROP “DIALOGUE PIECE (STARTED APRIL 21,69) 08 VERBAL. In one of the first reviews published shout Lozano's work Diane Waldman observed that paint on her sectioned eanvases hada ‘quality sweeping ‘through and around curves into sudden sharp breaks’, concluding that ‘hus the ‘momentum ineveases by both visual and physical adjustments in a concentration of energy’ Lozano said that for painting the “biggest line ofall is always that cransition De(ween the second and third dimension er last series of paintings was inspired by physies and electro-magnetic waves. Imagine’ in 1083, She is telephoned tobe interviewed about paintings she said she hadn't seen since they were shown at the Whitney in 1970. It has been over a ddoeade since she left New York and moved to Texas, where she lived many'yeats with her parents, To the best of anyone's knowl ledge she has been pursuing at least (0 continuing projects for almost 5 years. One is General Strike Piece, 'staRTeD FER. 8, '60' JMAN SHOW COMPILED RY RICHARD REL- LAMY, GOLDOWSKY GALLERY, 1078 MADISON AVE, WHEN ‘IE ARISTDECIDED GRADU channelled to their stanel ins, Given thot her boycott begins when she is about to lose her studio fft (she applied to the Mark Rothko Poundation in Apri igri for assistance Iaecause of the embarrassing urgency of immanent dispossession of my Toft for four months’ non-payment of rent. a utilities cut foffan May 3,71. & my inability to raise funds from any olher souree™), some attention siould be paid to not only the orthography Dutalso the etymology ofthe word: “bov- nnceording ta Webster i derived from es C. Rayrott #897 Ring lanl agent in Ireland who was osteacined for refusing to reduce renis’, Her landlord problems get die placed into a zener dispste, complicated by ‘questions and conflicts of (national, personal) {dentity: Lozano operated in artistic circles {in whieh select women ~ Virginia Dwan, Paula Cooper, Litey Lippard ~ did have what could be construed as power andor control In some paradoxical serambling she booked them for business incompatibiity ‘Lazano had a prominent place in Lippaed's Sie Year: The Demateralization ofthe Ar Objet my 1966 fo 1972 ay73}s certainly her boyeott Thad something to do with her complet bsenee, three years iter from Lippard’s encompassing Finn the Center: Feminist Esa ‘on Women’s Art Retrospectivey, [sense some dismay in Lippard’s stil cqgent précis of Lozano’ project in Sis Years: ‘Lavano's ‘conceptual work, conceived. simultaneously with the end of a lige se of paintings on wave phenomena, combine artanid life taan extreme extent, Unlike most instrsetion’ oF eommiand pees, for ‘example, Loaanois are dirveted to herself and she has carried them out serupuloushs, ‘no matter how difficult sustain they may bbe, Her art it has been said heeames the seans by which to transform her life, and, by implication, the lives ofothers and of the planet itself. With Dropout Piece, Lozano began her greatest experiment, a dissolve into what could be called the ‘ordinary’, an art piece known only to the artist. 246 | riexe | October 2006 Pew were ready to see Lozano’s boventt as a decision with feminist consequences. Neco! wrote that she was ‘personally lummoxed by [Lozano's] rejection of/refasal total ta/women” The frst sentence of the review ‘af Lozano's compact, one-person show of the ‘Wave! series in 1971 reads: ‘A group of ‘leven paintings by LEP LOZANO sn the small main-floor gallery of the Whitney Museurn is disturbing.* But why shouldn't art «sturb, especially ifts projeet isa nuclear experiment with art and life? At theend of the review Kasha Linville eoneludes hy men- toning a small group of plastic hoxes inthe show containing body hair, nail elippings and birthstones’. Sheddings of the body synehro- nized with Lozano's stvike or boyeott suggest thatthe fetish was not merely ‘woman’ but, perhaps, personhood, identiy itself, as something to be sTouyhed off (become pure energy pure'E’ Some afthe most provocative thinking, on Lorand's rejection or refusal has been done by art historian and evtie Helen Molesworth, bby showing a continuity becween Lozano’ general strike of the ar¢ world and her boy- ott of women: “Lthink part of what is shocking about Lozana’s withdrawal is the rigour with whieh she rejected twa intimately connected sys: 1: patriarchy and capitalism, By refusing tospeak to womten she exposed the systemic and ruthless division ofthe world into the ‘categories of men andl women, By refs ing to speak to women she acknowledged the impossibility ofa life lived outside th socictal confines and projections of gender. By vefusing to speak fo women as am artwork. she also refused the demand of capitalism for the constant production of private property, "That she elie the ftishized art object ane ‘women was perbaps no mistake, as both shave a similar fate." Larano's 1969 Dialogue Pice notes her ‘engagement with most ofthe major players fof New Yook art world af her time, bu i's not as though the piece doesnt also suggest ‘other potential diatogues, through omission, Temight be useful © keep in mind another writer and contemporary instigator of rad: disturbing gestures, Valerie Solanas, who spoke for those emales [| unbarnpered by propriety, niceness, diseretion, publie opin jon, “morals”, the respeet of assholes, always Funky, dirty, low-down’, those who want to craw out from under the dock, move, take off sink out.3* ‘While most wetters about Lozano seem as- sured, from what evidence there is, that she ‘continued her boycott, none has wondered ‘women’ inekidles mothers. One of the eatiy participants in Lozano's Dialague Piece is the artist's mother. On 18 Nay 1969 she notes: ‘CALL MY MOCIER, WHOIS tbl, SHE 1S MAY ING FIRST DRUG EXPERIENCE & 1 INVITE HI Sur woUID MOVE HY TEXAS DAVE WE HER Pas 1 a IIIMLOWHI WO VEaks. Levene ‘Tie astexe ANDED HER-HUNKING ABOL _AeTIONS 1N CONIUNCNON WHI DIL AND SIX. IN lini Masturbation Investigation, ‘APRIL 3-5, 69°, SU: Nom “OTIER PIECES SIMULTANEOUSLY Ti OUTSIDE WORLD. FREE PARTNER OR ANYONE ELSE.’ She spends the three days in April masturbating: day one to fantasies -“BaLLING SPECLEIC HUMANS, THEN IMAGINARY HUMANS’ and to pictures Irom Screw magazine: day two with var ‘ous objcets ~ HARD KUBBEK MoTOKCYELE LIGHETRULAY, FINA, O8 DAY MME. § APH 1965: "MASIUNBATION 1OOKING IND SH AILAT IDR reflecns Gutta Oust UM SINC 1 Caper, coo CHANGE HOM HEATED Wowace BD, VIOUATHALUIAHON OFIIBRCAHON HN DLCENPAREMTORS, & vi8ATON DUTENG OMAN Shmoormn wuxEVAsiON OF PIECED Mba. Hvar SING: HE Ha ASKED FoR Uximsnins: sa moroveH carter JOURSAIS AND A CAINE RUSONNE OD HEE RT SINE REVS OF INRfCHON. Lovano used Ae word inthe titles for both her final sel: organized shows (in 1971 at the Nova Seatia College of Art and Design, Halifax, ane the following year atthe Lisson Gallery, Landon), ‘seemingly hee ‘eritieal and personal take on ‘Information’ the major exhibition of e ‘eplual and process.art curate! by Kynasion IMeShine’ at MoMA in New York." The artist stated “Information i content. Content ts fiction. So may be the sel, the thing she'd experiment on for the rest of her i ‘What a paltry vorabulary there is for undecstanding the self or sexuality, or how art might aperate or he. Lozano, supposedly, ‘dropped out-of, as Solanas suggested, took offandl sunk out, With Dropout Pieee ~ what zets toa comfortably deemed her rejection or refusal of the art world ~E" began her sreatest experiment, a dissolve into what could be calle the ordinary, but with seare quotes around it, away from» the so-atled art world, the ‘ordinary’, daily living. asa art niece known only to the artist, perhaps her parents, and/or yet-to-be revealed others From her private notebooks’. April 1970:'T have decided what I con't wantand am mov- img aay fram i, towards (jy!) the wuknoten (hill ofall thrills)” She commented in the same months It wss inevitable, since I work. in sets of course, that Ido the Drupon Piece (note pun) [.-] Dropout Piece isthe bardest work Ehave ever done." ‘And yet who isto deny that the pieces which stated they were ‘CONTINUING’ didn't contin? Why shoulde' artist and art he allowed to experiment with the boundaries of existenve, of ny? Why is there such a state limit placed on what a proper mode of artistic production, not to mention reception, is? One other the most challenging notes ‘sept 8.71',contemporancous with her ‘info- fetion’ shows, slates: HAVE NO IDENTITY. [ool HAVE AN APPROXIMATE MATHEMATI- CAL IDENTITY (IRTHCHART) fo] HAVE SEVERAL NAMES.” FP CONCLUDES! *1 WIL [ool BENTETY CHANGES CONTINUOUSLY Ax MULTIPLIED BY TIDE. QDENTITY 18 A WReOR).” Maxy orLAZANO' CONTEMPORARIES, the miraculous, often through the paranor- imal and/or drug use: when women pursue similar concerns, their work is often reduced oa toothless, Mother Fasth magick. Lozano reminded anyone who only wished! to smile that the sublime annihilates, that nature ean bbe mutha, that drugs open the self to the possibility of3 permanent freak-out. Arti lot more interesting than just eanvases and seulptuses, drawings and prints. and things Tike that tn her famous statement for the (Open Public Hearing, Art Workers Coali tion, she stated that she'd eall herself not an ‘PARTICIPATE ONLY IN A TOTAL REVOLUTION BUTONE.WHO DREAMS KNOWS OF NIGHTMARES. A SconPIO KNOWS OFVENOM AND SANS, BUTS {NSO CHANNESED I HESTAMC, WISLING 10 THK Prop uc mots? NOrMUISOGYNISTOR MISA IMP NCTRVEN MRANSLIUNYANy BLT SIFER INS, beyond demateriatization, she released hits of antimatter, ‘deeprain resistance’ died on October 2, 1999, of cervical ‘cancer, When L entered "NOV. 5 1980, 4:25 PM, NEWARK, NJ 18D ANNE OS-INE ASMONCIEN, 1xG 1OR"TH: INNER YoU YOUR Rha Mowe ‘now’: QUIET HEED, FaNETTONAIY COM PIES AND Is Easy "DEETIO KNOW AND UNMHASTAND. L- ‘You mauiNes AND PHCEIPHONS Go DERDERIAN Bruce Hainley is Asociate director of Graduate Studies in Celilo & Thoory at Art Center College of Design, Pasadena, Sis new book is Foul ‘Mouth (2nd Cannons Publications, 2006). over Mis essapevuld not bce ben site sidout te assistance an expertise of Bob Nickasand art bistovian Jane Necol. Alof Nov statment ‘are token, sith ber permission, from email correspondence witb ihe autbor 9 August 2006. I thank Nee! fr ber generosity. Any infelictes of inerpretaton ar transmision are my 02. 1 Adam Seymore. ie Lacano: Wn Pi Dat at Win bt on Cresta sel & Vs ‘Asirmans, 2004), p13. Ualessvthorise ped al “quotation rons Lavaro ext, eel ae etsy othe, Srefrom thie cana 2 ibid 5 lane Neeal.e ‘rigs 2006 Thi Tal p Thi. Diane Waldman, “ce Lavan, Ar Ne, Deeb 16.013 9 DML. 95 olvey Lipper, Sir Tiare he Demat ft ‘ie Ott os 966 012 (Nes Yor ProeRE. 3) ta Kasha (dle Lee vane! Adirun (ebruary Yorn is 13 Tden Molenvorth, ‘une in, Turn On, Drop Out ‘ThelRgetion of Lee van Base 138 14 Valerie Slants, CUM Llano Yes, ‘2boaforiginally published 19690 . 61 35 lascl.pt7 26 Ibi pn ibid *O Thi. po. tes 29 The eas Abstect tg Statements and an Essay” Interviwsby Marie Poitiers Jone Neel, a0 merien Oeter 9G.B 3S. comssponlence with ee oho. 9 ‘Getolaer 2006 fi DECIDE TO BoYcoTT WOMEN, THROW LUCY LIPPARD'S som 2ND LETTER OW BO NOT GREET ROCHELLE BASS iN STORE. END WK AUGUST, 7/ DEFUNCT DLE, UNANSWERED, PAULAM TAVINS CALLS AUG II, TELL HER 1 AM BoYcoTTING WOMEN AS AN EXPERIMENT THRU ABT SEPTAX THAT APTER THAT RCOMMUMICATION WILE BE BETTER THAN BVER! 12 ie FUCKIN: LP BAD, MAKIN MISTAKES. ONE HOUR LATE Te MEET BELLAMY HERE, | MISSED Hid (HE LEAVES No7e) IT'S MY DEEPRRAW RESISTANCE TO was WHAT? BELLAMY ® KELSEY? DO} WANT To Lose MY LOFT POR ACTION > UTTER CLAUSTROPHOBIA IN TIME/SPACE OF PRESERT i MISSED HIM ACL LAST WEEK Too. ALSO FUCKED UP WITH BUSINESS CONPATIBILITY BOOK, EXPERIMENT: WRITE JO PEOPLE IN ATvENMAT TO CONMUNICATE, AFTER MERCURY GOES RETROGRADE AUG (3, rd irs! ne eee ee Aus GOING @™@ TC ROOF LOOKING, AT MARS eg QUARTER MOON, STARS & VIRHBOOCRHOOD CALMS tna =, ROM WEEK IN HALIFAX 2 THE MAGIC WORD To CARCEL SPELLS IP ANYONE TRIES TO LAY A SPELL ON You, OR Te COUNTERACT A WITEH'S POWER? YELL ORTHOGRAPHY! appear to have been an unconsidered ar easy ‘decision, On the same shect of tissue paper the artist remarks, during the second week of her baycott,on 1 August 197: “im fuckin up bad, makin mistakes. one hour fate to meet hellamy here, i missed bim {ie leaves note) is my deepbrain resistance (.. what? bellamy? kelsey? do want (0 lose ay loft for action? utter elawstrophobia in Lozano investigated the atomic boundaries of life and art, although not without psychic and mortal consequences. IDnAS & INFORM FURTHER SHARING OF PERSONAL & PUBLIC REVOLUTION. The other fs her infamous hoyeott, During the Isr Wx IMUGUST, 71 she comes t0 DECIDE TO ROY: COTE WOMEN. [-] THROW LUCY LIPPARD'S SERED, oe DO NOT GRKET ROCHE! In stort’ TN mIESreOND WIPE OPAUGUS IGE THe FHAN RVER.' TY NO WAY DOS TENS time/space present. missed him all last week too . also fteked up with business eompat ‘ily hook, Strangely, for an artist so attuned to the waves and frequencies of anguasge, no ane seems to have commented on her enentiz- ing the boy’ within sboyeott’ as if, through some apotrapaie orthogeaphie power, boys ‘cannot, in the art world, he boyeotted, ancl so, paradoxically the fee of her oye 58 etober 2006) frieze 1245

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