Untitled 1978

Curator: Mel Bochner's small, untitled work presents us with a constellation of shapes, almost geometric, floating on a white field. It's at the Harvard Art Museums. What's your initial read? Editor: It strikes me as precariously balanced, yet calm. The pastel hues mixed with earth tones and geometric forms, it feels like a meditation on instability. Curator: I agree. Bochner often plays with perception, especially in how we understand shapes and forms in relation to one another. Note how the shapes aren’t quite perfect. Editor: The tilted angles create subtle visual tension. It reminds me of early Constructivist experiments with form and utopian ideals gone slightly awry. The red and purple lines seem to me as disruptions. Curator: Perhaps. Or are they connections? Bochner never gives us easy answers, preferring to nudge us toward our own interpretations. The lack of title is key, I think. Editor: True. An open invitation to project our own associations. It is interesting how shapes and colors evoke such strong, even contradictory feelings. Curator: Precisely! It's as if Bochner is saying, “Here are the elements, now make of them what you will.” And maybe, ultimately, that's the point of all art. Editor: Yes, leaving me to ponder the poetics of geometry and my own subjective experience of visual harmony and discord. Thank you, Mel Bochner!