Mel Bochner

Mel Bochner’s methodical intertwining of words, painting and language has established his reputation as one of the leading American conceptualists. Throughout his career, Bochner has explored the intersection of linguistic and visual representation, dissecting the overarching question of, “How do we receive and interpret different forms of information?” In this instance, through the process of art. 

Born in Pittsburg in 1940, he gained early recognition for his artistic talent at high school with The Scholastic Art & Writing Awards. He went on to study art at Carnegie Mellon University, before leaving to study Philosophy at Northwestern University near Chicago. Bochner moved to New York in 1964 and worked as a guard at The Jewish Museum and later as a teacher at the School of Visual Art. 

Now regarded as a seminal show in the Conceptual Art movement, Bochner’s first solo show, ’Working Drawings and Other Visible Things on Paper not Necessarily Meant to be Viewed as Art’, consisted of collected copied photocopies of his friends’ working drawings, as well as a fabricator’s bill, into binders and displayed them on four pedestals. 

In the wake of Abstract Expressionism, Bochner began experimenting with depth, perspective and space. The ‘Thesaurus’ paintings focus on text as a form of pictorial expression. Words such as, Amazing and Awesome descend down the page, asking the viewer to think about representation and abstraction and how they simultaneously cross over. 

Bochner continues to push the boundaries on what the notion of an artwork is or should be. He was one of the earliest proponents of photographic documentation and has famously used gallery walls as the subject of his work. As such his works can be found in institutional collections around the world, including the Museum of Modern Art in New York and the Courtauld Institute of Art in London.