Mel Bochner (b. 1940). Triangular and Square: Numbers (or Points), 1973. Charcoal, gouache, and pencil on paper. 38-1/2 ...

Description

Mel Bochner (b. 1940)
Triangular and Square: Numbers (or Points), 1973
Charcoal, gouache, and pencil on paper
38-1/2 x 50 inches (97.8 x 127 cm)
Signed and dated lower right: Mel Bochner 1973

THE COLLECTION OF ROBERT J. DODDS, III

PROVENANCE:
Sotheby's New York, May 1, 1991, lot 82;
Private collection;
Sonnabend Gallery, Inc., New York;
Christie's New York, November 13, 1998, lot 175;
Acquired by the present owner from the above.

Mel Bochner is perhaps best known for making text the subject of his artworks for decades. Visually exploring sets of synonyms in his thesaurus paintings, or exploring emptiness in language in paintings like Blah, Blah, Blah, he studies the ways that visual and verbal information can complement or contrast one another. "My feeling was that there were ways of extending, or re-inventing visual experience, but that it was very important that it remain visual," said the artist.
Triangular and Square: Numbers (or Points), 1973, explores shape numerically, with dots set along vertical and horizontal axes describing triangles and squares that steadily increase in dimension. The work is a classic Bochner in that it explores shape, one of the building blocks of art's expressiveness, in a highly systematized way.
Institutions from the Courtauld Institute of Art in London to the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. have collected Bochner's works, and he has been included in major exhibitions like the Whitney Biennial. An exhibition of a new, large-scale work from his Measurement series is currently on view at Dia Beacon, in upstate New York.


More information about Mel Bochner. See also: Bochner, Mel Artist.



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