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Series Title: Misunderstandings (A Theory of Photography)

Untitled

1970

Mel Bochner

(American, 1940–2025)
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Culture
America
Medium
offset lithograph
Measurements
Sheet: 12.7 x 20.3 cm (5 x 8 in.)
Credit Line
Gift of Barbara Tannenbaum in memory of Carl Schneider 2023.132.6
Copyright
Copyright
This artwork is known to be under copyright.
Location
Not on view
Print
?

Did You Know?

Mel Bochner has stated that the quotations in Misunderstandings “might (or might not) suggest the impossibility of a ‘theory’ of photography.”

Description

When Mel Bochner began producing photographs, he explored historical and critical writings on medium and found that “the more I read, the more I began to see it all as a colossal misunderstanding.” This artwork juxtaposes quotations from his reading that present contradictory views of the medium and its relationship to reality and reproduction with a photograph: a negative of the artist’s forearm and hand alongside a measuring stick (a symbol of verifiable fact).
A horizontally oriented cream index card, lined in faint blue with a pink top margin, is inscribed with thick, black handwritten capitals. Across two lines, the text reads: "IN MY OPINION, YOU CANNOT SAY YOU HAVE THOROUGHLY SEEN ANYTHING UNTIL YOU HAVE A PHOTOGRAPH OF IT." Below the text, justified to the right, "EMILE ZOLA" is written in matching script. Small dark marks appear in the upper left corner.

Untitled

1970

Mel Bochner

(American, 1940–2025)
America

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