Mel Bochner

(American, born 1940)

Mel Bochner is an American Conceptual artist best known for his text-based paintings. Bochner’s popular thesaurus painting series consists of lists of synonyms displayed in rainbow-colored palettes, often featuring a single word repeated in painterly capital letters, as seen in his seminal piece Blah, Blah, Blah (2008). “My feeling was that there were ways of extending, or re-inventing visual experience, but that it was very important that it remain visual,” he reflected on introducing text into his work. “The viewer should enter the idea through a visual or phenomenological experience rather than simply reading it.” Born in 1940 in Pittsburgh, PA, he earned his BFA from the Carnegie Institute of Technology in 1962. Travelling to New York in 1964, Bochner began working as a guard at the Jewish Museum and settled in the city. Like Eva Hesse, Robert Smithson, and Donald Judd, Bochner experimented with ideas that broke away from the dominate Abstract Expressionism of the early 1960s and developed an ongoing commitment to semiotic representation. His influential critical and theoretical essays on art have figured as a central component to his oeuvre. The artist continues to live and work in New York, NY. Bochner’s works are included in the collections of the Art Institute of Chicago, the Carnegie Museum of Art in Pittsburgh, the Courtauld Institute of Art in London, and the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., among others.

Mel Bochner News

Jackson Pollock Moonlit as the Guggenheim’s Maintenance Man—and 4 Other Unlikely Side Jobs Famous Artists Once Held at New York Museums

by Annikka Olsen

Jackson Pollock Moonlit as the Guggenheim’s Maintenance Man—and 4 Other Unlikely Side Jobs Famous Artists Once Held at New York Museums

In 2020, Blue-Chip Art Businesses Flocked to the Hamptons. Are They in It for the Long Haul?

by Eileen Kinsella

In 2020, Blue-Chip Art Businesses Flocked to the Hamptons. Are They in It for the Long Haul?

Editors’ Picks: 18 Events for Your Art Calendar This Week, From a Chat With the Guerrilla Girls to the Music That Inspired Basquiat

Editors’ Picks: 18 Events for Your Art Calendar This Week, From a Chat With the Guerrilla Girls to the Music That Inspired Basquiat

Mel Bochner Artworks

Mel Bochner (851 results)

Blah, Blah, Blah, 2019

Mel Bochner

Blah, Blah, Blah, 2019

Sale Date: May 19, 2022

Auction Closed

Third Planar Arc, 1977

Mel Bochner

Third Planar Arc, 1977

Sale Date: May 19, 2022

Auction Closed

Rules of Inference., 1974

Mel Bochner

Rules of Inference., 1974

Sale Date: May 12, 2022

Auction Closed

Untitled (from the 4 x 4 x 4 portfolio), 1989–1990

Mel Bochner

Untitled (from the 4 x 4 x 4 portfolio), 1989–1990

Sale Date: April 29, 2022

Auction Closed

Nothing, 2015

Mel Bochner

Nothing, 2015

Sale Date: April 26, 2022

Auction Closed

Two / 2 plates, 1993

Mel Bochner

Two / 2 plates, 1993

Sale Date: February 23, 2022

Auction Closed

Blah, Blah, Blah, 2009

Mel Bochner

Blah, Blah, Blah, 2009

Sale Date: April 7, 2022

Auction Closed

Ha Ha, 2019

Mel Bochner

Sale Date: March 17, 2022

Auction Closed

Silence, 2021

Mel Bochner

Silence, 2021

Sale Date: March 22, 2022

Auction Closed

Untitled, 1989

Mel Bochner

Untitled, 1989

Sale Date: March 11, 2022

Auction Closed

Kvetch Kvetch Kvetch, 2011

Mel Bochner

Kvetch Kvetch Kvetch, 2011

Sale Date: March 9, 2022

Auction Closed

Top Dog, 2020

Mel Bochner

Top Dog, 2020

Sale Date: February 22, 2022

Auction Closed

Untitled, 1984

Mel Bochner

Untitled, 1984

Sale Date: February 11, 2022

Auction Closed

I Dont Get It / I Still Dont Get It (diptych), 2014

Mel Bochner

I Dont Get It / I Still Dont Get It (diptych), 2014

Sale Date: January 27, 2022

Auction Closed

Mel Bochner

Mel Bochner

Mel Bochner "No" Monoprint, Unique Signed, 2009

Sale Date: January 29, 2022

Auction Closed

Obvious, 2021

Mel Bochner

Obvious, 2021

Sale Date: January 27, 2022

Auction Closed

Untitled (Cubes), 1989

Mel Bochner

Untitled (Cubes), 1989

Sale Date: December 9, 2021

Auction Closed

Chuckle, 2020

Mel Bochner

Chuckle, 2020

Sale Date: December 14, 2021

Auction Closed

Blah, Blah, Blah (MB6105), 2020

Mel Bochner

Blah, Blah, Blah (MB6105), 2020

Sale Date: November 29, 2021

Auction Closed

Thank You, 2021

Mel Bochner

Thank You, 2021

Sale Date: November 23, 2021

Auction Closed

Oh Well., 2020

Mel Bochner

Oh Well., 2020

Sale Date: November 16, 2021

Auction Closed

BOCHNER, MEL. On Certainty / Über Gewissheit., 1991

Mel Bochner

BOCHNER, MEL. On Certainty / Über Gewissheit., 1991

Sale Date: November 9, 2021

Auction Closed

Scoundrel, 2010

Mel Bochner

Scoundrel, 2010

Sale Date: November 17, 2021

Auction Closed

Blah Blah Blah, 2010

Mel Bochner

Blah Blah Blah, 2010

Sale Date: November 10, 2021

Auction Closed

Previous 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 Next

English (US)

©2024 Artnet Worldwide Corporation. All rights reserved.