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)

Untitled, 1982

Mel Bochner

Untitled, 1982

Sale Date: December 14, 2016

Auction Closed

Blah, Blah, Blah + Background Noise, 2012

Mel Bochner

Blah, Blah, Blah + Background Noise, 2012

Sale Date: December 5, 2016

Auction Closed

Blah, Blah, Blah, 2012

Mel Bochner

Blah, Blah, Blah, 2012

Sale Date: November 17, 2016

Auction Closed

OH WELL, 2012

Mel Bochner

OH WELL, 2012

Sale Date: October 27, 2016

Auction Closed

Untitled (Souvenir of Kraus Compo Dedication,...

Mel Bochner

Untitled (Souvenir of Kraus Compo Dedication,...

Sale Date: November 5, 2016

Auction Closed

2 Number Circles Interlocking Zero: Mirror..., 1973

Mel Bochner

2 Number Circles Interlocking Zero: Mirror..., 1973

Sale Date: November 5, 2016

Auction Closed

Blah, 2014

Mel Bochner

Sale Date: November 22, 2016

Auction Closed

Project for Corner Piece: 36

Mel Bochner

Project for Corner Piece: 36" Series (12 + 24), 1969

Sale Date: November 1, 2016

Auction Closed

Okto, 1974

Mel Bochner

Sale Date: October 26, 2016

Auction Closed

It Doesn't Get Any Better Than This, 2014

Mel Bochner

It Doesn't Get Any Better Than This, 2014

Sale Date: October 26, 2016

Auction Closed

AMAZING (INVERSE), 2014

Mel Bochner

AMAZING (INVERSE), 2014

Sale Date: October 28, 2016

Auction Closed

Range, 1979

Mel Bochner

Sale Date: October 8, 2016

Auction Closed

Untitled, 1992

Mel Bochner

Untitled, 1992

Sale Date: September 29, 2016

Auction Closed

Head Honcho, 2012

Mel Bochner

Head Honcho, 2012

Sale Date: September 13, 2016

Auction Closed

Mel Bochner (b. 1940), 1972

Mel Bochner

Mel Bochner (b. 1940), 1972

Sale Date: September 28, 2016

Auction Closed

MONEY, 2015

Mel Bochner

Sale Date: September 29, 2016

Auction Closed

Mel Bochner

12" Plate; Two 12" Plates (two works), 1993

Sale Date: September 11, 2016

Auction Closed

BLAH BLAH BLAH, 2012

Mel Bochner

BLAH BLAH BLAH, 2012

Sale Date: July 28, 2016

Auction Closed

MEDITATION ON THE THEOREM OF PYTHAGORAS, 1993

Mel Bochner

MEDITATION ON THE THEOREM OF PYTHAGORAS, 1993

Sale Date: July 16, 2016

Auction Closed

Range, 1979

Mel Bochner

Sale Date: June 11, 2016

Auction Closed

Untitled (R.Y.B.), 1995–1996

Mel Bochner

Untitled (R.Y.B.), 1995–1996

Sale Date: May 19, 2016

Auction Closed

Amazing (Inverse), 2014, 2014

Mel Bochner

Amazing (Inverse), 2014, 2014

Sale Date: May 24, 2016

Auction Closed

NOT TITLED (17), 1995

Mel Bochner

NOT TITLED (17), 1995

Sale Date: April 21, 2016

Auction Closed

FIRST QUARTET, 1988

Mel Bochner

FIRST QUARTET, 1988

Sale Date: April 21, 2016

Auction Closed

Previous 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 Next

English (US)

©2024 Artnet Worldwide Corporation. All rights reserved.