'No', 2010. oil on canvas
Have you ever been to a solo show where you are convinced there were multiple artists on display? That’s how I felt while visiting Fraenkel Gallery’s Mel Bochner: Photographs and Not Photographs 1966 – 2010, spanning Bochner’s work from 1966 to 2010, a potent time for conceptual and Post-Minimalist art in America. Each work tempted me to the next like a carrot on a stick with a continuation of the concepts that he wove throughout the gallery using photography and painting. Furthermore, quotes from Sartre, Proust, Duchamp and the Miriam-Webster Dictionary about photography, blocks, monuments, painting and a multitude of other topics illuminated his photos and paintings. Bochner’s show presents many ideas, but lacks a specific point which is successful in that it allows the viewer a great deal of room to ponder, explore and enjoy without feeling that an answer must be found.
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