Remembering Mel Bochner
Mel Bochner 1940–2025
A giant in accomplishment—in the contributions he made to contemporary art for over six decades—and indeed substantial in stature as well, has died.
He leaves a legacy of wit, an acute intelligence and multiple works located in museums the world over and in numerous and fortunate private collections.
In 2019 Border Crossings published an interview with Mel Bochner, conducted in his Tribeca studio. Language and the ideas that do or don’t ride over, behind or beyond it have always been his material. His expression, in a multitude of media, has been inexhaustible and, in spite of the intended provocation and irascibility, beauty entered, often.
The pleasure of this interview is evident in the exchange which is offered here in its entirety. Once it was completed, Mel Bochner asked, “Would you like me to design the cover?”
Words are deeds and “language Is not transparent;” Mel Bochner’s work will resound and thereby continue.
Meeka Walsh
