Mel Bochner: Measurements (1968-1971)

Documenting arch-conceptualist Mel Bochner’s fusion of architecture and quantification

Produced in honor of the 50th anniversary of his first Measurement Room, Mel Bochner: Measurements (1968–1971) revisits this defining period early in the New York–based artist’s 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, measurements—a numerical means of ordering the world—highlight the interplay of architecture and the viewer’s 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 one’s place in the world. Here, preparatory drawings, poetic artist’s notes and archival photographs of the first Measurement Rooms reveal Bochner’s 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.