Second Stone

Lee Bontecou’s Second Stone: A Portal into Abstract Expressionism’s Industrial Edge

In 1962, as Abstract Expressionism’s dominance began to fracture under the weight of Pop Art’s ascent, Lee Bontecou carved out a singular path with works like Second Stone. This lithograph distills her signature fusion of organic abstraction and mechanical precision—a dialogue between the visceral and the engineered that defined her contributions to the movement. The artwork’s jagged, almost geological forms evoke both natural erosion and industrial fabrication, a duality that positioned Bontecou as a bridge between the gestural intensity of de Kooning and the cool detachment of emerging Minimalism.

The title itself—Second Stone—hints at a serial exploration, a fragment of a larger inquiry into voids and projections. Unlike the broad, sweeping strokes of her male counterparts, Bontecou’s compositions demand proximity; their intricate textures and layered depths reward sustained viewing. As the Museum of Modern Art has noted in retrospectives of her work, these pieces refuse passive observation, instead pulling the viewer into a tactile, almost sculptural engagement with the printed surface. The lithograph medium, with its capacity for fine detail, allowed her to translate the physicality of her three-dimensional welded reliefs into two-dimensional works without sacrificing their haptic intensity.

Bontecou’s Break from the New York School

By the early 1960s, Lee Bontecou had already distanced herself from the machismo that permeated Abstract Expressionism’s inner circle. While Pollock and Rothko sought transcendence through scale and myth, Bontecou’s work—including Second Stone—embodied a more intimate, almost scientific inquiry. Her lithographs from this period function as studies in tension: between darkness and illumination, concavity and protrusion, the handmade and the mechanical. The Tate’s analysis of her oeuvre emphasizes how these works reject the heroic individualism of Action Painting in favor of a collaborative dialogue with the materials themselves.

This print emerged during a pivotal moment in Bontecou’s career, as she transitioned from her monumental welded steel reliefs to smaller, more accessible works on paper. The reduction in scale did not diminish her ambition; instead, it allowed her to explore the same themes of voids and thresholds with a newfound precision. Second Stone’s central aperture—a recurring motif in her work—serves as both a wound and a window, a paradox that invites viewers to project their own interpretations onto its ambiguous depths.

Bontecou’s lithographs are not mere reproductions of her sculptures but independent investigations into the same obsessions: the interplay of light and shadow, the tension between surface and depth, and the uneasy coexistence of the organic and the industrial.

The Lithographic Process as Extension of Sculpture

Layering and Texture

Bontecou’s approach to lithography mirrored her sculptural practice. She treated the stone matrix as a three-dimensional object, building up layers of tusche and crayon to create a topography that would translate into the printed image. In Second Stone, the granular texture visible in the darker passages results from this physical manipulation of the stone, where the artist’s hand pressure determined the density of the ink deposit.

Negative Space as Active Element

The print’s most striking feature—the central void—was achieved through a combination of masking and selective inking. Rather than treating the empty space as a passive background, Bontecou activated it by carefully controlling the ink’s bleed at the edges. This technique, akin to her welded steel frames, turns the absence of mark-making into a deliberate compositional choice, one that forces the viewer’s eye to oscillate between the printed forms and the unprinted paper.

Displaying Second Stone: A Guide to Context and Placement

The 30×40 cm (12×16") dimensions of this framed print make it versatile for both intimate and public spaces. Its monochromatic palette—dominated by inky blacks and the warm tone of the paper—pairs effectively with walls in deep charcoal, slate blue, or even warm terracotta. For maximum impact, position the work at eye level in a narrow hallway or above a console table, where its central void can draw viewers into a dialogue with the surrounding architecture. In larger rooms, consider floating it alongside other abstract works, but allow sufficient breathing space; Bontecou’s compositions resist visual clutter.

Avoid overly bright or direct lighting, which can flatten the print’s textural nuances. Instead, opt for diffused illumination that enhances the interplay of matte and slightly glossy inks—a quality that the Smithsonian American Art Museum has highlighted in their conservation notes on her lithographs. The frame’s neutral profile ensures the focus remains on the artwork’s intricate surfaces, while the standard size simplifies integration into existing gallery walls or salon-style arrangements.

More Works by Lee Bontecou

Discover the evolution of Bontecou’s practice through these key lithographs, each exploring her signature themes of voids, thresholds, and industrial organicism.

Lee Bontecou

Fourth Stone

View print

Lee Bontecou

Study For An Untitled Print

View print

Lee Bontecou

Tenth Stone

View print

Lee Bontecou

Untitled

View print

You May Also Love

Arte Povera

Piero Manzoni

Frog Pond

View print

Surrealism

Rene Magritte

The Fair Captive

View print

Modern Abstraction

Etel Adnan

Untitled

View print