Mel Bochner experimented with a range of styles before finding his eventual success as a pioneer in Conceptual art. An audacious 1966 show at School of Visual Arts (SVA) in Manhattan that he presented, “Working Drawings and Other Visible Things on Paper Not Necessarily Meant to Be Viewed as Art,” remains a seminal touchstone for Conceptualism.
Bochner was born to a Pittsburgh sign painter in 1940. While attending the Carnegie Institute of Technology (now Carnegie Mellon) in the late 1950s, he studied color theory and modernist movements as well as classical drawing, a balance that was formative in his career. After graduation, he moved to San Francisco, creating paintings influenced by Clyfford Still and Jean Dubuffet.
It wasn’t until Bochner “found his way out of the labyrinth of late Abstract Expressionism,” as he put it to The Brooklyn Rail, that he began to create his most meaningful work. Following a stint auditing philosophy classes after a friend introduced him to the work of Heidegger, Bochner relocated to New York, finding work as a guard at the Jewish Museum. In Manhattan, he ran in the same circles as Dan Flavin, Brice Marden and Donald Judd.
“One of the conversations going on in New York in the late ’60s was about the relationship of the object to the art experience,” Bochner said. “...Younger artists like myself were talking about what it would mean to eliminate the object altogether.” This idea would become the foundation of the Conceptual movement, in which Bochner was instrumental. The artist is probably best known for his text-focused paintings, including a series that plays with the phrase “Blah Blah Blah.” He produces work that regards art as an experience, rather than an object, centering on the process of creation and viewership as opposed to the finished product.
Bochner’s “Working Drawings and Other Visible Things on Paper Not Necessarily Meant to Be Viewed as Art” featured drawings, notes and outlines from the likes of Milton Glaser, Carl Andre, Sol LeWitt and others as well as pages from Scientific American. Bochner, then an art history professor at SVA, photocopied the assemblage of works, added them to binders and positioned them on pedestals for the exhibition because the show’s organizers lacked the funds to frame the pieces.
Bochner’s works can be found in the collections of many major museums, including the Museum of Modern Art, the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Whitney Museum of American Art.
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BLAH BLAH BLAH
By Mel Bochner
Located in Miami Beach, FL
Rare early Mel Bochner painting - unique - oil on canvas - exhibited at Peter Freeman New York Signed, dated, titled to verso
Oil, Canvas
$3,793
H 28.75 in W 36.23 in D 1.97 in
Incoherence of compulsory ways #1 - Hélène Duclos, Contemporary figurative paint
By Hélène Duclos
Located in Paris, FR
Oil on canvas Signed lower right Unique work 1 / Hélène DUCLOS, 2016 – Artist Statement “Questioning the human condition and the position of being alive – What is it to be a living being? Who / what can we believe? Who / what can we trust? How real is our view of the world? And how is that perspective angled, and ultimately limited? These are the issues at the heart of my work as an artist. Painting, drawing, engraving and embroidery give me the freedom to approach my subjects from an ambivalent and flexible standpoint. I am building up a dynamic body of work, like pieces that you can put together in one way or another to shape different structures, pierced with numerous openings. And the title that I give each piece acts as a possible clue as to how to enter inside that system. I can portray both softness and monstrosities. I focus on the links and barriers lying between living beings and their surroundings, and evoke how permeable these connections are. My aim is not to create a visual documentary reporting fact, but rather immerse myself in observing everyday life, and in a host of images depicting real events (pictures, photos and videos). Instilled with these images, I can give a more personalized, unique and allegorical vision of the world around me. I am also interested in the key transition periods of human existence, those turning points that forge our identity within a family, a group, and society as a whole at the heart of a specific environment. I centre on what makes up and creates cohesion (rituals, myths and tales….), and indeed the opposite - what leads to life becoming shattered, hindered and frustrated (moving populations, exile and migration…) Amidst a landscape roaming with wild beasts and hybrid creatures, between love and separation, metaphors for our own desires and fears lie in hiding, or reveal themselves in the painted or embroidered spaces. Sometimes they are etched with lines, symbols and tiny architectural designs. These works might depict our inner landscapes, as if harking back to a primordial and cosmic point of origin. My most recent collections recreate the images of bodies or landscapes using abstract zones and figurative details that have no direct link with either anatomy or geography. Intimacy and the unspeakable are themes that run throughout my work, and I make sure to incorporate areas of both visual tension and relief, so as to give the viewer the space to project him or herself into the work. And here, such paradoxes can only be reached through the interplay between abstraction and figuration.” 2 / Thierry Delcourt Psychiatrist, psychoanalyst and author of works on the process of artistic creation, and the conditions of existential and social creativity : "Entering into the world of Hélène Duclos in her drawings, paintings, embroidery and words means letting yourself be carried away by a torrent towards strange shores of creation where only a few artists have ever dared to venture. As if perched on a watchtower on the threshold of different worlds, Hélène Duclos throws us out of our depth, plunging us into spaces filled with destitute mankind, and guiding us through her stem-like maze of a scheme, bristling with roots and clues. But the mystery here, like a poetic, human rebus that never ends, only compels us to take a closer look.” 3 / Hélène Duclos ‘s biography : After graduating from the Duperré School of Applied Arts in Paris with a degree in textile design, I set off on a six-month sea voyage from Vannes in Brittany, to Dakar. On returning to France, I set up my atelier...
Canvas, Oil
$6,994
H 35.04 in W 57.09 in D 1.97 in
Alien invasion Stéphane Fauchille Contemporary art painting colour humour
By Stéphane Fauchille
Located in Paris, FR
Oil paint on canvas Unique work Hand-signed by the artist Stéphane Fauchille, dream anthropologist “Would you, for a moment, like to become the Claude Lévi-Strauss of the aborigin...
Canvas, Oil
$3,200
H 18.12 in W 21.66 in D 1.97 in
Change of paradigm #1 - Hélène Duclos, Contemporary figurative painting
By Hélène Duclos
Located in Paris, FR
Oil on canvas Signed Unique work 1 / Hélène DUCLOS, 2016 – Artist Statement “Questioning the human condition and the position of being alive – What is i...
Canvas, Oil
$4,149
H 28.75 in W 36.23 in D 1.97 in
Selective memory #3 - Hélène Duclos, 21st Century, Contemporary painting
By Hélène Duclos
Located in Paris, FR
Oil on canvas Signed Unique work 1 / Hélène DUCLOS, 2016 – Artist Statement “Questioning the human condition and the position of being alive – What is it to be a living being? Who /...
Canvas, Oil
$11,261
H 76.78 in W 51.19 in D 1.97 in
The republican picnic Stéphane Fauchille Contemporary art painting colour humour
By Stéphane Fauchille
Located in Paris, FR
Oil paint on canvas Unique work Hand-signed by the artist Stéphane Fauchille, dream anthropologist “Would you, for a moment, like to become the Claude Lévi-Strauss of the aborigin...
Canvas, Oil
$2,963
H 21.66 in W 18.12 in D 1.97 in
Orientation perspectives #1 Hélène Duclos, 21st Century Contemporary figurative
By Hélène Duclos
Located in Paris, FR
Oil on canvas Signed Unique work 1 / Hélène DUCLOS, 2016 – Artist Statement “Questioning the human condition and the position of being alive – What is i...
Canvas, Oil
$6,530
H 63 in W 39.38 in D 1.97 in
The sorcerer's apprentice -Timothy Archer, 21st Century painting, Figurative art
By Timothy Archer
Located in Paris, FR
Oil paint and pastel on canvas Signed and dated by the artist
Canvas, Oil
$9,364
H 68.12 in W 48.43 in D 1.97 in
Strawberries Stéphane Fauchille Contemporary art colour painting landscape
By Stéphane Fauchille
Located in Paris, FR
Oil paint on canvas Unique work Hand-signed by the artist Stéphane Fauchille, dream anthropologist “Would you, for a moment, like to become the Claude Lévi-Strauss of the aborigin...
Canvas, Oil
$5,808
H 44.89 in W 57.49 in D 1.97 in
Change #4 - Hélène Duclos, 21st Century, Contemporary Figurative painting
By Hélène Duclos
Located in Paris, FR
Oil paint on canvas Signed Unique work 1 / Hélène DUCLOS, 2016 – Artist Statement “Questioning the human condition and the position of being alive – Wha...
Canvas, Oil
$13,061
H 63 in W 82.68 in D 1.97 in
On the lake - Timothy Archer, 21st Century painting, Contemporary figurative
By Timothy Archer
Located in Paris, FR
Oil paint and pastel on canvas Signed and dated by the artist
Canvas, Oil
$5,808
H 44.89 in W 57.49 in D 1.97 in
Selective memomy #1 - Hélène Duclos, 21st Century, Figurative painting
By Hélène Duclos
Located in Paris, FR
Oil paint on canvas Signed Unique work1 / Hélène DUCLOS, 2016 – Artist Statement “Questioning the human condition and the position of being alive – What is it to be a living being? ...
Canvas, Oil
$5,334
H 51.19 in W 38.19 in D 1.97 in
In full knowledge of the facts #1 - Hélène Duclos, 21st Century, Painting
By Hélène Duclos
Located in Paris, FR
Oil on canvas Signed Unique work 1 / Hélène DUCLOS, 2016 – Artist Statement “Questioning the human condition and the position of being alive – What is it to be a living being? Who / what can we believe? Who / what can we trust? How real is our view of the world? And how is that perspective angled, and ultimately limited? These are the issues at the heart of my work as an artist. Painting, drawing, engraving and embroidery give me the freedom to approach my subjects from an ambivalent and flexible standpoint. I am building up a dynamic body of work, like pieces that you can put together in one way or another to shape different structures, pierced with numerous openings. And the title that I give each piece acts as a possible clue as to how to enter inside that system. I can portray both softness and monstrosities. I focus on the links and barriers lying between living beings and their surroundings, and evoke how permeable these connections are. My aim is not to create a visual documentary reporting fact, but rather immerse myself in observing everyday life, and in a host of images depicting real events (pictures, photos and videos). Instilled with these images, I can give a more personalized, unique and allegorical vision of the world around me. I am also interested in the key transition periods of human existence, those turning points that forge our identity within a family, a group, and society as a whole at the heart of a specific environment. I centre on what makes up and creates cohesion (rituals, myths and tales….), and indeed the opposite - what leads to life becoming shattered, hindered and frustrated (moving populations, exile and migration…) Amidst a landscape roaming with wild beasts and hybrid creatures, between love and separation, metaphors for our own desires and fears lie in hiding, or reveal themselves in the painted or embroidered spaces. Sometimes they are etched with lines, symbols and tiny architectural designs. These works might depict our inner landscapes, as if harking back to a primordial and cosmic point of origin. My most recent collections recreate the images of bodies or landscapes using abstract zones and figurative details that have no direct link with either anatomy or geography. Intimacy and the unspeakable are themes that run throughout my work, and I make sure to incorporate areas of both visual tension and relief, so as to give the viewer the space to project him or herself into the work. And here, such paradoxes can only be reached through the interplay between abstraction and figuration.” 2 / Thierry Delcourt Psychiatrist, psychoanalyst and author of works on the process of artistic creation, and the conditions of existential and social creativity : "Entering into the world of Hélène Duclos in her drawings, paintings, embroidery and words means letting yourself be carried away by a torrent towards strange shores of creation where only a few artists have ever dared to venture. As if perched on a watchtower on the threshold of different worlds, Hélène Duclos throws us out of our depth, plunging us into spaces filled with destitute mankind, and guiding us through her stem-like maze of a scheme, bristling with roots and clues. But the mystery here, like a poetic, human rebus that never ends, only compels us to take a closer look.” 3 / Hélène Duclos ‘s biography : After graduating from the Duperré School of Applied Arts in Paris with a degree in textile design, I set off on a six-month sea voyage from Vannes in Brittany, to Dakar. On returning to France, I set up my atelier...
Canvas, Oil
Irascible
By Mel Bochner
Located in New York, NY
Oil painting with embossing on black velvet by American conceptual artist Mel Bochner. Signed by Bochner and dated in ink on the stretcher.
Oil
BLAH BLAH BLAH
By Mel Bochner
Located in Aventura, FL
Hand signed and dated on front by the artist. Original monoprint with collage, engraving and embossment on hand-dyed Twinrocker handmade paper. Frame size approx 17.75 x 18.25 in. ...
Handmade Paper, Engraving, Monoprint
Blah Blah Blah
By Mel Bochner
Located in New York, NY
Blah Blah Blah 2014 monoprint, with collage, engraving, embossment on hand dyed Twinrocker handmade paper Mel Bochner (American, b.1940) is one of the pioneers of Conceptual Art....