Drawing for "48" Standards" 1969 - 1972

Curator: Mel Bochner, born in 1940, created this "Drawing for '48' Standards'". What do you make of it? Editor: It feels… like a blueprint stripped bare, a minimalist gesture towards monumentality. Curator: Indeed. Bochner’s work often interrogates systems of measurement and knowledge production. Here, he presents a literal standard, rendered with almost clinical detachment. The dimensions, 48 by 36 inches, are clearly marked. Editor: I see the repetition of "48" as a visual echo. It makes me think about the symbolic power of numbers in different cultures, their inherent stability but also their potential for manipulation. This hints at an imposed order. Curator: The drawing highlights the way we frame and quantify the world around us, and perhaps, the limitations inherent in such quantification. Editor: It's a fascinating intersection of the objective and the subjective. Curator: Precisely. It leaves you pondering the nature of standards. Editor: And how easily they can become a framework for societal norms.