Bochner, Mel

Biography
American
b. 1940

Bochner, like Weiner and Kosuth, worked primarily with language and ideas, rather than physical objects. He uses simple, inexpensive objects as a means of expressing different theories. He wrote:

Parenthetical Reflections on Five Earlier Statements
  1. My primary interest is with methodology.
    (Why my art is is not its meaning.)
  2. Individual demonstrations should be seen simply as a determinant of place and convenience.
    (Where my art occurs is not its meaning.)
  3. Given an alternative set of circumstances, the same idea may take a radically different form.
    (How my art looks is not its meaning.)
  4. My art exists only when it is asked for...there is nothing between exhibitions.
    (When my art happens to be done is not its meaning.)
  5. For me, all a work of art has to be is uninteresting.
    (The condition of my art is its avoidance of attributed meanings.)
Artist Work
Axiom of Indifference 1973
Theory of Painting 1969

Bibliography
Artist's Writings:
Bochner, Mel. "Documentation in Conceptual Art" Idea Art. ed. Gregory Battcock. E. P. Dutton, New York 1973
Bochner, Mel. "Serial Art, Systems, Solipsism". Minimal Art: a critical anthology. Battcock, Gregory ed. E. P. Dutton, New York 1968

General:
Arnason, H. H. History of Modern Art. 3d ed. New York,1986
For further readings look under Bochner and The Post Minimal Seventies in Arnason.

Atkins, Robert. Art/Speak . Abbeville Press, N. Y. 1990
Kurtz, Bruce D.. Contemporary Art 1965-90. Prentice-Hall, N. J. 1992