Multiple Materials
Create a relief work with art materials and found objects
In Untitled 1961 (1961) and The Rose (1958-66) respectively, Lee Bontecou and Jay DeFeo built up the surface of their work in relief. Bontecou included saw blades, metal spools, wire, rope, and soot in her work; DeFeo embedded small objects such as a barrette, bottle cap, keys, and wire in the oil paint of The Rose.
Ask students to begin with a two-dimensional surface such as a wood panel or metal frame, and create a relief piece using art materials such as model magic, paint, paper, and wire, as well as small found objects.
![Gray layers of oil paint and sediment radiate in a starlike shape from a central white point that seems to emanate light in a monumental abstract artwork standing over 10½ feet tall.](https://whitneymedia.org/assets/image/676106/large_95.170_defeo.jpg)
Jay DeFeo, The Rose, 1958–66. Oil with wood and mica on canvas, 128 7/8 × 92 1/4 × 11 in. (327.3 × 234.3 × 27.9 cm). Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; gift of The Jay DeFeo Trust and purchase, with funds from the Contemporary Painting and Sculpture Committee and the Judith Rothschild Foundation 95.170. © 2015 The Jay DeFeo Trust/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
![Gray layers of oil paint and sediment radiate in a starlike shape from a central white point that seems to emanate light in a monumental abstract artwork standing over 10½ feet tall.](https://whitneymedia.org/assets/image/676106/large_95.170_defeo.jpg)