Mel Bochner (1940 - ). Surface Dis/Tension, 1968. Silhouetted gelatin silver print mounted on board. 72 x 68 in. Courtesy of the Sonnabend Gallery, NY

Mel Bochner Photographs, 1966–69 will present the first comprehensive survey of photographs by one of the founding figures of conceptual art. In contrast to Bochner’s widely exhibited installations and works on paper, his compelling body of photography remains little known, but sheds crucial light on the development of both minimal and conceptual art in America. Although untrained as a photographer, Bochner turned to the camera in the mid-1960s in an attempt to escape the insistent physicality of the then-ascendant minimal art.

Through photography, Bochner sought to foreground the ideas or theories behind artistic practice, rather than the objects themselves. To that end, his photographs isolate and explore the mechanics of artistic phenomena, such as color, perspective, or scale, all of which have played a crucial, if sometimes hidden, role in the history of Western art since the Renaissance. The exhibition’s roughly 50 photographic works will offer a wealth of visual variety, demonstrating Bochner’s inventive approach to the medium. Some of his prints span more than seven feet, while in other works Bochner combines as many as 36 individual photographic panels to create a dizzying spatial effect. His dramatic silhouette pieces, in which the edge of the photographic print corresponds to the outline of the image, appear to project off the wall like trompe l’oeil bas reliefs. Rather than presenting a narrow view of Bochner’s artistic achievement, the emphasis on the "photographic" will provide a focus with which to examine not only photography but also a selection of 30 related drawings and a 16 mm film.

Organized by Scott Rothkopf, Ph.D. candidate, History of Art and Architecture.

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