Via Vanvitelli

Mel Bochner

1987

A large charcoal drawing on four sheets of colored paper in which Bochner repeats and distorts three-dimensional cubes to probe how measured forms dissolve into expressive, unstable space.

The papers sit like a tilted diamond and smoky, smudged cube outlines tumble inward toward a central whirl, their edges alternately crisp and ghostly so the whole image feels in restless motion.

Marrying conceptual concerns with raw mark-making, the work helped reopen drawing as a way to investigate perception, repetition, and the instability of representation in late‑20th‑century art.

Palette

Art Terms

Charcoal Drawing Collage Conceptual art Gestural Geometric abstraction

Exhibitions

Contemporary Drawings

1984

A Century of Modern Drawing, 1881–1981

1982

Selections from the Permanent Collection: Drawings

1984

Drawing Now: 1955–1975

1976