Surface Dis/Tension 1968

Mel Bochner gave us "Surface Dis/Tension," a photographic print, and it’s like he’s wrestling with flatness itself. It's a photograph of a crumpled surface overlaid with a grid; the grid is a symbol of order, but the crumpled surface is chaotic. The texture is everything here. Bochner captures every fold and shadow, creating a push and pull between what we know to be a flat image and what our eyes tell us is a deep, uneven terrain. Check out the lower-left corner, where the paper seems to almost tear away from the grid. It's as though the surface is fighting back. Bochner's work reminds me a bit of Robert Ryman, another artist who stripped painting down to its barest essentials. But where Ryman was all about the purity of white paint, Bochner seems interested in the messy, unpredictable nature of materials. It’s a reminder that art is often about embracing the unexpected and finding beauty in imperfection.