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Lee Lozano’s Dropout Piece (begun c.1970) is one of her most challenging and elusive works. First and foremost, it is the name Lozano gave to her self-imposed transformation from art world insider to outsider. It is also a large-scale action carried out with lifelong, indeed posthumous, consequences.
Sarah Lehrer-Graiwer presents Dropout Piece as a great experiment in art and endurance. Situating the work within the context of ‘Life-Art’ pieces such as Dialogue Piece, General Strike Piece, Grass Piece and Boycott Women, she demonstrates how Dropout Piece exhibits an extraordinary range of artistic intents. Drawing closely upon Lozano’s private notebooks, Lehrer-Graiwer argues that Dropout Piece still haunts the art world today as oral history, ephemera and fantasy, and reveals how Lozano’s practice advanced the relationship between language and performance and between private thought and urgent action. This title is part of the One Work book series, which focuses on the artworks that have significantly shaped the way we understand art and its history.
