Mel Bochner

Mel Bochner (b.1940) is part of a generation of New York artists who emerged in the 1960s, at a time when painting was increasingly discussed as outmoded. Bochner was a pioneer in introducing language into the visual field which led Harvard University art historian Benjamin Buchloh to describe his 1966 Working Drawings as ‘probably the first truly conceptual exhibition’. Having returned to painting in the 1980s, the artist in his most recent series of ‘thesaurus paintings’ achieves a symbiosis of language and colour that is as intellectually complex as it is visually stimulating. Taking colour as its guiding thread this book highlights Bochner’s richand thought-provoking approaches to photography, installation and painting over the course of the past 45 years.