Mel Bochner: Text series
177.165 x 166.37 x 12.065
The question is often asked, “Must we mean what we say?” But the real question is, “Must we say what we mean?” For me humor is not a “laughing matter.” I’m more interested in irony. Irony is subversive. It camouflages a “meaning inside the meaning.”
- Mel Bochner
Mel Bochner invites viewers to explore the differences between “seeing” and “reading” art in his infamous ‘Text’ series. He juxtaposes bright colors with dark words and vis versa, starting a conversation about the relationship between language, interpretation, and emotion.
Bochner is recognized as one of the leading figures in the development of conceptual art in New york in the 1960s and 1970s. Finding a niche for himself in the fine art world at the intersection of painting and language, Bochner's work pieces raise important questions such as: who is the audience and who is the speaker of the words?
In his Thesaurus series, Bochner touches on the power of the list, “I found that the list was an ideal format, because every word on a list is of equal importance.” No two synonyms mean exactly the same thing, they pile and add to each other creating a muddled and complex meaning of the words.
Bochner’s work probs the conventions of painting and language, the way we construct and understand them, and the way they relate to one another. His work makes us more attentive to what underlies language and what is left unsaid. Arton Contemporary is honored to exhibit work by such a groundbreaking conceptual artist.
