Before her self-imposed exile from the art world, Lee Lozano (1930–99) was a highly regarded painter who defined a generation of American artists infusing conceptualism with a new intensity. A prolific writer and documenter of both her art and her relationships, both the public and private, Lozano kept a series of personal journals from 1968 to 1972 while living in New York’s SoHo neighborhood.
Eleven of these private books survive, containing notes on her work, detailed interactions with artist friends and commentary on the alienations of gender politics, as well as philosophical queries into art’s role in society and humorous asides from daily life. In the decade before her infamous “dropout piece”—culminating in a move to Dallas, Texas where she would remain until her death—Lozano returned to these notebooks, editing the entries, sometimes blacking out entire pages.
Private Book 9 is the ninth in the series of 11 pocket-sized books, all of which will be printed as facsimiles.
Lee Lozano's (1930-1999) thoughts, notes and musings for 1970
This volume spans April to September 1970, the summer that preceded Lozano’s solo exhibition at the Whitney, where she showed her Wave Paintings. (Following this major show, Lozano ceased to paint altogether and increasingly turned her attention to text-based works.) Among the thoughts, manifestos and personal contacts scribbled in these entries is a callout to Lucy Lippard, who described Lozano as “the major female figure” in conceptual art during the 1960s: “Slogans written on postcards to Lucy Lippard & my parents: Love Your Planet / Plan-It / Lose your ego for peace / Put YOUTH in the black & white house.”
Spiral-Bound, 3 inches x 5 inches, 2021.
