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ART FOCUS - Homage to a Lost Icon

This month we celebrate the life and work of Mel Bochner, the trailblazing Conceptual Artist whose pictorial and theoretical legacy will challenge and inspire artists now and for generations to come.


Tribute to Mel Bochner

1940 - 2025



Image of Bochner in his studio, photo courtesy Kyle Knodell

Mel Bochner is recognized as one of the leading figures in the development of Conceptual art in New York in the 1960s and 1970s. Emerging at a time when painting was increasingly discussed as outmoded, Bochner became part of a new generation of artists - including Eva Hesse, Donald Judd, and Robert Smithson - who broke away from Abstract Expressionism and traditional compositional devices, radically reimagining visual art.

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Through a series of provocations into art-making, Bochner transformed our current definition of art itself. Most famously, he pushed the boundaries of material convention with his question, "What isn't a drawing?" His groundbreaking introduction of the use of language in the visual led Harvard University art historian Benjamin Buchloh to describe his 1966 exhibition, Working Drawings, as "probably the first truly conceptual exhibition."


Bochner came of age during the second half of the 1960s, a moment of radical change both in society at large. While painting slowly lost its preeminent position in modern art, language moved from talking about art to becoming part of art itself. Bochner has consistently probed the conventions of painting and language, making us more attentive to the unspoken codes that underpin our engagement with the world.


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Exhibition image of Mel Bochner Drawings: A Retrospective at the Art Institute of Chicago, 2022


Last month, just after his passing, we procured a piece of Bochner's while at Frieze, from Marc Selwyn Fine Art. We acquired the exquisite "Blah Blah Blah" for a client for whom we had previously collected a work on velvet. Though diminutive in size, this monoprint, from 2009, with collage, engraving and embossing on hand-dyed Twinrocker handmade paper, has taken on a poignant, renewed meaning and historical significance.

We are grateful for how our clients benefit from the commitment gallerists make in service of the artists they represent. It is moments like these that we feel the gravitas of being able to guide clients to works which are as significant as they are transcendent. Mementos of the artist's legacy and tokens of the era, these are artworks to be treasured for generations.


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Mel Bochner, Oh Well- Red, 2020, 7 color silk screen print, 67 x 48 inches, limited edition of 30.
We've had the pleasure of procuring other works in Bochner's oeuvre. Another pair of clients quickly fell in love with this seven color silk screen pictured above, Bochner's exquisite "Oh Well- Red", courtesy of Mark Selwyn and the artist's studio. They could not be happier with the vibrancy and depth it brings to their beautiful family room thoughtfully designed by Adam Hunter.



Mel Bochner, Head Honcho, 2023, and Robert Rauschenberg, Sling Shots Lit #1, 1985



Pictured above is another acquisition of Bochner's 2023 "Head Honcho." The work exemplifies the height of the artist's experimentation with a variety of media - from pigment to ink to chalk - a luxurious oil on velvet. As the perfect expansion to our client's collection, the piece flawlessly compliments the bold dynamism of the 1985 Robert Rauschenberg lithograph and assemblage, Sling Shots Lit #1, nearby. Testament to Bochner's endless innovation, the piece brings a bit of levity to our client's office landing.


As intriguing as they are thought-provoking, each of the works by Mel Bochner carry a rich depth of theoretical and material meaning. We are honored to have brought clients to these pieces of his artistic legacy and will cherish his memory through his immortal practice and continued influence.





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Intriguing Conceptual and Visual Explorations

February 19th - May 24th

Around Los Angeles, the reverberations of the theoretical investigations into the visual present in three exhibitions open this month that you do not want to miss!


Installation view of Charles Gaines, Numbers and Trees, The Tanzania Baobabs, open at Hauser & Wirth

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Hauser & Wirth

Charles Gaines, Numbers and Trees, The Tanzania Baobabs

February 19th - May 24th

Hauser and Wirth presents the work of another iconic pioneer of conceptual art, Charles Gaines. The most elaborate treatment yet of his ongoing Numbers and Trees series, all the works are based on photos of baobab trees taken during a Tanzania trip in 2023.


Zipora Fried, Ohara no Sato, 2024, signed by artist, verso, colored pencil on archival museum board, 60 x 80 inches

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Sean Kelly, Los Angeles

Zipora Fried, Trust Me, Be Careful, I Like Your Shoes

March 15th - May 3rd

Sean Kelly is delighted to present Zipora Fried’s first solo exhibition in Los Angeles. The exhibition highlights her mastery of mark-making and her continued exploration of the transformative, manipulative potential of form, color, and gesture.


Installation view of Georgia Gardner Gray, CHRYSALIS, at Regen Projects.

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Regen Projects

Georgia Gardner Gray, CHRYSALLIS

March 1st - March 29th

Georgia Gardner Gray’s first exhibition in the U.S., Chrysalis will feature new paintings, sculptures, and a theatrical play. Using the chrysalis as a metaphoric and structural framework, Gray examines how perceptions of history, painting, originality, and figuration evolve over time.

 



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