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.

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Mel Bochner Artworks

Mel Bochner (851 results)

Blah, Blah, Blah, 2008

Mel Bochner

Blah, Blah, Blah, 2008

Sale Date: December 19, 2023

Auction Closed

Blah, Blah, Blah, 2021

Mel Bochner

Blah, Blah, Blah, 2021

Sale Date: December 13, 2023

Auction Closed

No, 2022

Mel Bochner

Sale Date: December 20, 2023

Auction Closed

Untitled [Two Works], 2014

Mel Bochner

Untitled [Two Works], 2014

Sale Date: December 14, 2023

Auction Closed

Twenty-Five Years, 1984

Mel Bochner

Twenty-Five Years, 1984

Sale Date: November 29, 2023

Auction Closed

HA HA HA, 2021

Mel Bochner

HA HA HA, 2021

Sale Date: November 29, 2023

Auction Closed

Blah, Blah, Blah, 2019

Mel Bochner

Blah, Blah, Blah, 2019

Sale Date: November 22, 2023

Auction Closed

Untitled (from the 4 x 4 x 4 portfolio), 1968–1990

Mel Bochner

Untitled (from the 4 x 4 x 4 portfolio), 1968–1990

Sale Date: November 16, 2023

Auction Closed

Counting (Double Over) (from the Couples..., 1994

Mel Bochner

Counting (Double Over) (from the Couples..., 1994

Sale Date: November 16, 2023

Auction Closed

Nothing, 2006

Mel Bochner

Nothing, 2006

Sale Date: November 15, 2023

Auction Closed

Useless, 2007

Mel Bochner

Useless, 2007

Sale Date: November 16, 2023

Auction Closed

Striation Series, 1967

Mel Bochner

Striation Series, 1967

Sale Date: November 8, 2023

Auction Closed

Scoundrel, 2012

Mel Bochner

Scoundrel, 2012

Sale Date: October 26, 2023

Auction Closed

Nothing, 2007

Mel Bochner

Nothing, 2007

Sale Date: October 19, 2023

Auction Closed

Blah Blah Blah, 2010

Mel Bochner

Blah Blah Blah, 2010

Sale Date: October 18, 2023

Auction Closed

Fucked-Up and Far from Home, 2014

Mel Bochner

Fucked-Up and Far from Home, 2014

Sale Date: October 18, 2023

Auction Closed

Old, 2014

Mel Bochner

Sale Date: October 18, 2023

Auction Closed

Going Out of Business, 2012

Mel Bochner

Going Out of Business, 2012

Sale Date: October 18, 2023

Auction Closed

Wow, 2017

Mel Bochner

Sale Date: October 18, 2023

Auction Closed

Are You Out of Your Fucking Mind?; Do I , 2012–2013

Mel Bochner

Are You Out of Your Fucking Mind?; Do I , 2012–2013

Sale Date: October 18, 2023

Auction Closed

Howl, 2022

Mel Bochner

Sale Date: October 17, 2023

Auction Closed

Blah, 2010

After Mel Bochner

Sale Date: September 15, 2023

Auction Closed

Blah Blah Blah, 2011

Mel Bochner

Blah Blah Blah, 2011

Sale Date: September 27, 2023

Auction Closed

Thanks (K. 2015.01), 2015

Mel Bochner

Thanks (K. 2015.01), 2015

Sale Date: September 22, 2023

Auction Closed

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