The work of artist Lee Bontecou is making a rare appearance at MoMA with “All Freedom in Every Sense,†one of a handful of shows since her 2003 exhibition at L.A.’s Hammer Museum, before which she had spent decades avoiding the art world in rural Pennsylvania. The highlight of her new mini-retrospective will undoubtedly be the recently acquired, untitled hanging steel-and-canvas sculpture (pictured) that was last on view in her 2004 exhibition at MoMA QNS. It’s a macabre galactic mobile, the birth of the universe as imagined by the animators in Tim Burton’s studio. But don’t let its mesmerizing qualities keep you from the other works on view: An untitled 1959 wall sculpture gives you the impression of peering into a enormous, dormant volcano, while pencil and charcoal sketches shed light on the artist’s process. All of these are on view through August 30.
