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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 2023.132.7
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 lithograph depicts a cream index card with faint blue lines and a pink top margin. Thick, angular black handwriting in all caps fills the upper half, presenting a quote about mediated perception. Centered below, the name "JAMES J. GIBSON" is written in the same irregular script. The scratchy lettering contrasts with the structured rows of the card, while the bottom half remains empty.

Untitled

1970

Mel Bochner

(American, 1940–2025)
America

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