Mel Bochner
If the Colour Changes
- American artist Mel Bochner (b.1940, Pittsburgh) is recognised as one of the leading figures in the development of Conceptual art in New York in the 1960s and 1970s
- Bochner was a pioneer of the use of language in the visual. He is perhaps best known for his Word Art paintings, where language – sometimes repetitive or under a theme – and sometimes colour are used to explore how words and meaning are communicated and received
- Bochner has consistently probed the conventions of both painting and of language, the way we construct and understand them, and the way they relate to one another, to reveal the unspoken codes that underpin our engagement with the world
- The cover image of this book is from one of his most famous painting series, BLAH! BLAH! BLAH!, and is indicative of Bochner's particular take on Word art, where text and colour are deployed
First published in conjunction with a major retrospective, this monograph takes colour as its guiding thread to highlight Mel Bochner’s rich and thought-provoking approach to photography, installation and painting.
One of the founding figures of Conceptual art, and one of its most astute critics, Mel Bochner combines colour and language in his work.
This monograph focuses on the role of colour, purity of thought and visual pleasure in Bochner’s most recent work – such as a series of paintings in which he used a thesaurus to generate humorous word chains – and relates it back to the artist’s renowned works from the 1960s and 1970s.
Alongside 140 colour illustrations, Achim Borchardt-Hume discusses the role of colour in Bochner’s recent work; João Fernandes explores language; Ulrich Wilmes looks at new paintings in relation to past work; and Briony Fer considers notions of corruption in Bochner’s art.
- Publisher
- Ridinghouse
- ISBN
- 9781905464661
- Published
- 21st Jul 2022
- Binding
- Paperback / softback
- Territory
- World excluding USA & Canada
- Size
- 285 mm x 244 mm
- Pages
- 224 Pages
- Illustrations
- 140 color
Distributed by ACC Art Books
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