Mel Bochner: Measurements (1968-1971)

Documenting arch-conceptualist Mel Bochners fusion of architecture and quantification Produced in honor of the 50th anniversary of his first Measurement Room, Mel Bochner: Measurements (19681971) revisits this defining period early in the New Yorkbased artists renowned career. One of the most important conceptual artists of the 1960s and 1970s, Bochner (born 1940) applied various abstract systems in his artistic practice. Here, measurementsa numerical means of ordering the worldhighlight the interplay of architecture and the viewers relationship to it. Subverting a simple yet meticulous procedure by rendering it as aesthetics, the work challenges conventional understandings of dimensions in space and by consequence ones place in the world. Here, preparatory drawings, poetic artists notes and archival photographs of the first Measurement Rooms reveal Bochners thinking and process beyond this pivotal series while a contemporaneous interview with Elayne Varian and an essay by Dia curator Alexis Lowry add essential context.