The Menil Collection The Menil Collection

Mel Bochner joins the Menil Drawing Institute’s Chief Curator Edouard Kopp for a talk on the occasion of the unveiling of Bochner’s new wall drawing, the fourth in an ongoing series of ephemeral, site-specific installations in the Drawing Institute. The talk takes place from 6-7 p.m. and will be followed by a public reception with the artist.

The Artist Talk series is supported by a gift from the Cockrell Family Fund.

Glasstire is the media sponsor of Artist Talk: Mel Bochner.

Mel Bochner (b. 1940) is recognized as one of the leading figures in the development of Conceptual art in New York in the 1960s and 1970s. Emerging at a time when painting was increasingly discussed as outmoded, Bochner became part of a new generation of artists, which also included Eva Hesse, Donald Judd, and Robert Smithson - artists who, like Bochner, were looking at ways of breaking with Abstract Expressionism and traditional compositional devices. His pioneering introduction of the use of language in the visual, led Harvard University art historian Benjamin Buchloh to describe his 1966 Working Drawings as ‘probably the first truly conceptual exhibition.‘

Bochner came of age during the second half of the 1960s, a moment of radical change both in society at large as well as in art. While painting slowly lost its preeminent position in modern art, language moved from talking about art to becoming part of the art itself. Bochner has consistently probed the conventions of painting, drawing, and language, the way we construct and understand them, and how they relate to one another to make us more attentive to the unspoken codes that underpin our engagement with the world.

This program takes place in the Menil Drawing Institute, located at 1412 W. Main St. Further information regarding accessibility and parking can be found here. Doors open at 5:30 p.m. Seating is available on a first-come, first-served basis.