Via Vanvitelli
Mel Bochner
American, 1940–2025
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.
Medium
Charcoal on four sheets of colored paper
Dimensions
64 x 64" (162.5 x 162.5 cm)
Classification
Department
Credit
Gift of Lois de Menil
Accession
543.1990
Palette
Art Terms
Exhibitions
