Mel Bochner Amazing, 2017 is an eye-catching presentation of glowing berry-colored words executed in satisfyingly thick daubs of oil paint. Beginning with the word AMAZING!, the piece entrancingly continues with an exhaustive list of synonyms, further and further reaffirming the AMAZING!, and each ending with an irreverent exclamation point. There is something undeniably child-like in the large, sans-serif font, the pure colors, and the bold and unrestrained application of color. And it’s perhaps the child like nature of the piece that gives it its remarkable wit and humor, exemplary of Bochner’s smart and striking artistic style.

Bochner would choose words from a thesaurus, and arrange the words to fit a designated format, in this case, rectangle measuring roughly 29 inches tall and 20 inches wide. Bochner elaborates on his process, comparing it to “a sort of degegeneration of language, as it moves from the more polite and formal to the more vulgar and bodily” (Bochner, A Conversation between Mel Bochner and Barry Schwabsky, Mel Bochner Monoprints, New York: Two Palms, 2012).  Pure oil paint with strong pigmentation make up the lettering of this language based artwork. The glossy and thick impasto of the paint is raised in a painterly relief against the mat, and flat background of the collaged paper base, providing for a visually alluring contrast in texture.

Created in 2018, this monoprint in oil paint with collage, engraving and embossment on hand-dyed Twinrocker handmade paper is hand-signed and dated by Mel Bochner (Pittsburgh, 1940 – ) in pencil. Mel Bochner Head Honcho, 2018  is a unique and original work.

Catalogue Raisonné & COA:

Mel Bochner Amazing, 2018 is fully documented and referenced in the below catalogue raisonnés and texts (copies will be enclosed as added documentation with the invoices that will accompany the sale of the work).

1. Bochner, Mel. Monoprints: Mel Bochner: Words, Words, Words…New York: Two Palms, 2012. A similar monoprint in a different color and size listed and illustrated as catalogue raisonné no. 11.
2. A Certificate of Authenticity will accompany this artwork.

About the Framing:

Framed to museum-grade, conservation standards, Mel Bochner  Amazing, 2018 presented in a complementary moulding and finished with silk-wrapped mats and optical grade Plexiglas.