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Lee Lozano moved to New York in the early 1960s, when she began painting small, tightly framed canvasses in which she continued to explore her interest in the energetic potential of the body-machine, a theme that she would develop further in her series titled Tools. These paintings depict recurring motifs such as airplanes and other flying objects, representations of phalluses, and grotesque figures that recall the caricatures of James Ensor and Philip Guston. At once gritty and threatening, these works reverberate with the frenetic treatment of a particularly dense materiality of paint.

An eyeless face emerges from a green background, depicted in shades of grey. The ears of this face are overly large, matching the scale of the phallic nose that drops down along the centre of the composition. The face’s gaping mouth is traversed by an unidentified orange object that appears to be on the verge of being swallowed. The erotic energy of this piece resides in the inter-penetration of forms and bodies, a notion that Lozano termed “the cosmic fuck”.

The work was shown for the first time at the Bourse de Commerce in Lee Lozano "Strike",  Pinault Collection, 20 September 202 – 22 January 2024.