{"id":2498,"date":"2013-06-07T20:12:51","date_gmt":"2013-06-07T20:12:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/raulmourao.com\/blog\/?p=2498"},"modified":"2013-06-07T20:17:52","modified_gmt":"2013-06-07T20:17:52","slug":"mel-bochner-proposition-and-process-a-theory-of-sculpture-1968-1973","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.archive.raulmourao.com\/blog\/?p=2498","title":{"rendered":"Mel Bochner: Proposition and Process: A Theory of Sculpture (1968-1973) @ Peter Freeman, Inc."},"content":{"rendered":"

\"mel_bochner3\"<\/a> \"mel_bochner2\"<\/a> \"mel_bochner\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Peter Freeman, Inc. is pleased to present its fourth solo exhibition of work by Mel Bochner,\u00a0which will be the largest survey of Bochner\u2019s sculpture ever assembled. All from the years 1968\u00a0to 1973, these works represent the complete range of the artist\u2019s investigations into the\u00a0underlying conceptual foundations of sculpture; most have not been shown in New York since\u00a01972.<\/p>\n

About these works, Bochner wrote \u201cThoughts Reinstalling A Theory of Sculpture\u201d:<\/p>\n

A Theory of Sculpture is sculpture-as-self-representation. In these \u201cself-representations\u201d any material (pebble,\u00a0nut, coin, match stick, glass shard, etc.) is replaceable without changing the intention. When an object loses its\u00a0uniqueness, identity is denied an equivalence with presence. Any individual piece exists only as an \u201cexample of\u00a0itself \u201d. Paradoxically, without the object there would be no idea, but without the idea there would be no object.<\/p>\n

Number constitutes a mental class of objects. Numbers do not need concrete entities in order to exist. In Latin\u00a0the word for counting is \u201ccalculus\u201d, which translates, literally, as stone. By juxtaposing the numbers with the\u00a0stones A Theory of Sculpture forces a confrontation between matter (\u201craw\u201d material) and mind (categories of\u00a0thought).<\/p>\n

Sculpture, as opposed to painting, is defined by its alteration of the real world. In Latin the word for number is\u00a0\u201cdigit\u201d, which translates, literally, as finger. A Theory of Sculpture represents the hand (or agent of alteration),\u00a0by the use of the numbers 5 and 10. Therefore, even though nothing is carved, cast, welded, constructed, or\u00a0assembled, the manual aspect of sculpture is thematized.<\/p>\n

The concerns in A Theory of Sculpture are not abstract. I am not interested in sculpture in any formal sense. The\u00a0numbers and the stones exist on parallel but contradictory planes. While they appear to demonstrate the same\u00a0thing there is a rupture between them. The map is not the landscape. An enormous abyss separates the space of\u00a0statements from the space of objects. A Theory of Sculpture is the intention not to bridge that abyss.<\/p>\n

(Mel Bochner, New York)<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Mel Bochner was born in Pittsburgh in 1940, and received a BFA in 1962 from the Carnegie\u00a0Institute of Technology. The work is represented in many public collections around the world,\u00a0including Tate Modern (London), MoMA (New York), Whitney Museum (New York), Pompidou\u00a0(Paris) and MUMOK (Vienna). Recent solo museum exhibitions include MAMCO (Geneva,\u00a02003), the Art Institute of Chicago (2006) and the National Gallery of Art (Washington, 2011).<\/p>\n

A major retrospective is currently on view at Haus der Kunst in Munich (until June 23) and will\u00a0travel to the Muse\u00f9 Serralves in Porto (12 July \u2013 13 October). Coinciding with this year\u2019s 55th\u00a0Venice Biennale curator Germano Celant will recreate Harald Szeemann’s seminal exhibition\u00a0Live in Your Head. When Attitudes Become Form (Kunsthalle Bern, 1969) at the Fondazione\u00a0Prada, where Bochner will reinstall \u201cThirteen Sheets of 8 \u00bd Inch Wide Graph Paper (from a\u00a0nonfinite series)\u201d. Also on view now in New York, located at 180 Bowery until September 29,\u00a0Bochner has created a mural for After Hours 2: Murals on the Bowery, a project organized by\u00a0the Art Production Fund.
\nl\u00e1 no site\u00a0Peter Freeman, Inc<\/a><\/p>\n