CORY REYNOLDS | DATE 8/31/2021

A remarkable new book on Lee Lozano's drawings, out now from Karma Books, New York

Featured spreads are from Lee Lozano: Drawings 1958–64, new this week from Karma Books, New York. Weighing in at 640 pages and featuring 568 gorgeously printed reproductions, this volume collects works made during the critical six-year period when the artist went from deep to deeper into her legendary interrogation of gender. “THE HUMAN FIGURE IS IMPOSSIBLE TO DRAW!” Lozano is quoted in Helen Molesworth’s essay. “WHOEVER OR WHATEVER DESIGNED HUMAN BEINGS & ALL EVOLUTIONARY FORMS THAT LED UP TO THEM WAS A BAD ARTIST WHO TOOK THE IDEA OF FORM FOLLOWS FUNCTION TO ITS ULTIMATE DISASTER. ANY RUMINATION ABOUT MANKIND’S SHAPE WILL DISCLOSE HOW EXCEEDINGLY UGLY HE OR SHE IS. THE SILLY LITTLE HEAD SITTING ON THE GOLF-TEE NECK SITTING ON THE GREAT GAWKY BODY, THE SEPARATENESS OF FRONT & BACK, THE SUDDEN PROTRUBERENCES UNRELATED TO THE MAIN SEQUENCE, THE MESS OF MOUNDS, ANGLES & HOLLOWS, THE EMBARRASING VULNERABILITY OF THE EYES AND GENITALS, THE DEAD & STUPID BLANKNESS OF THE BACK OF THE HEAD, THE PISSHOLE COYLY HIDDEN IN THE SEX ORGAN, THE ASSHOLE NOT SO COYLY SHOVED UP BETWEEN THE CHEEKS IN BACK… OUTASIGHT (DESIGNER LUMPS SEX & ELIMINATION TOGETHER!)… THE CORNY S-CURVES, THE RUBBERINESS, THE INELEGANT MOVEMENT.” We are happy to report that all this (and much more) can be found in this book—a must-have for all serious contemporary art libraries.