VIEW ALL WORK FROM THIS ARTIST
WORDS

View "SPOTS" by Damien Hirst

View "WORDS" by Richard Prince and Vik Muniz

View "SOUNDS" by Christian Marclay

 

Mel Bochner is widely respected as one of the founders of Conceptual Art in the 1960s.

In Bochner's own words, "Whether in the public or the private domain, my recent work attempts to confront the ideologies and hidden agendas of language. Because as recent history has painfully taught us, all abuses of power begin with the abuse of language."


The works in this show contains groups of words, synonyms, starting with the simplest related words, and eventually de-evolving to vulgar phrases and colloquialisms. The path from a single word to a roll-call of the vernacular reflects the discrepancy between 'objective', lexical meaning and the perception of a 'subjective' individual. The chalky, all-cap lettering "speaks" the text while the wet-on-wet ground threatens to drown it out, further contributing to an overall sense of a communication breakdown. Mel Bochner's work was the subject of two major museum exhibitions in 2007: a 40-year retrospective of Bochner's drawings which finished a two-year museum tour at the San Diego Museum of Art in March; and a focused retrospective of his language-based works at the Art Institute of Chicago.

 


WORDS
Mel Bochner Biography  

  
 
 

  

1940
Born in Pittsburgh, PA


 
 Selected Exhibitions 

  
 
 

  

2006
"Mel Bochner: Drawing from Four Decades," Birmingham Museum of Art, Birmingham, MI; Weatherspoon Art Museum, Greensboro, NC





2005
"Looking at Words," Andrea Rosen Gallery, New York, NY





2005
"Dessins de la collection/Drawings from the Collection," Musée d'art contemporain de Montréal, Quebec





2005
"Building and Breaking the Grid," Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY





2005
"OpenSystems: Rethinking Art c.1970," Tate Modern, London, UK





2005
"The Last Picture Show: Artists using Photography, 1960-1982," Miami Art Central, Miami, FL





2005
"Wahlverwandtschaften," Städelsches Kunstinstitut und Städtische Galerie, Frankfurt/Main





2004
"Visions of America," Sammlung Essl-Kunsthaus, Klosterneuburg





2004
"INTRA-MUROS," Musee d'Art Moderne et d'Art Contemporain, Nice





2004
"Beyond Geometry: Experiments in Form 1940s−70s," Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, CA





2004
"Schriftbilder/Bilderschrift," Galerie von Bartha, Basel





2004
"The Last Picture Show: Artists Using Photography, 1960-1982," UCLA Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, CA





2004
"2004 Whitney Biennial Exhibition," The Whitney Museum of American Art, New York





2003
"Rien ne presse/Slow and Steady/Festina lente (cinquième épisode)," and "Mel Bochner: Measurement Paintings," Musée d´art moderne et contemporain, Geneva





2003
"The Last Picture Show: Artists Using Photography, 1960-1982," Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, MN





2003
"Game Over," Galerie Grimm/Rosenfeld, Munich





2003
"PRIVATE/CORPORATE II: EIN DIALOG DER SAMMLUNGEN," DaimlerChrysler Contemporary, Berlin





2003
"Selected American Graphic Prints from the Lincoln Center Collection," City Art Museum Ljubljana, Mestna Galerija 1, Ljubljana





2003
"Dust Memories," SI Swiss Institute, New York, NY





2003
"Fine Lines: Drawings from the Collection of Wynn Kramarsky," Santa Barbara Contemporary Arts Forum, CA





2002
"Forum: Mel Bochner Photographs," Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburg, PA





2002
"Under Pressure: Prints from Two Palms Press," The University Gallery, Amherst, MA





2002
Akira Ikeda Gallery, Berlin, Germany (Solo)





2001
Akira Ikeda Gallery Nagoya, Japan (Solo)





2001
"Flashing into the Shadows: The Artists Film in America, 1966-76," Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY





2001
"Art Express: Art minimal et conceptuel, état d’une collection," Musée d´art moderne et contemporain, Geneva





2001
"Drawing is Another Kind of Language," The Contemporary Museum Honolulu, HI





2000
"Afterimage: Drawing Through Process," Contemporary Arts Museum, Houston, TX





2000
Sonnabend Gallery, New York (Solo)





1999
Centro de Arte Helio Oiticica, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (Solo)





1999
"American Academy Invitational Exhibition of Painting and Sculpture," The American Academy of Arts and Letters, New York





1998
"More Pieces for the Puzzle: Recent Additions to the Collection," The Museum of Modern Art, NY





1998
The Drawing Center, New York (Solo)





1998
"The Serial Attitude," Addison Gallery of American Art, Andover, MA





1997
Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Geneva, Switzerland (Solo)





1997
"Gravity-Axis of Contemporary Art," National Museum of Osaka, Japan





1997
"Drawing is Another Kind of Language," Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge, MA





1996
"Thinking Print: Books to Billboards, 1980-1995," The Museum of Modern Art, New York





1996
"The Robert and Jane Meyerhoff Collection: 1945-1995," National Gallery of Art, Washington DC





1995
"1965-1995: Reconsidering the Object of Art," The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, CA





1995
Yale University, New Haven, CT (Solo)





1991
"A View from the 60s: Selections from the Castelli and Sonnabend Collections," Guild Hall Museum, East Hampton, NY





1991
The Butler Institute of American Art, Youngstown, OH (Solo)





1989
The Baltimore Museum of Art, Baltimore, MD (Solo)





1985
Carnegie-Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA (Solo)



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