Aggravate from Schematics
2010
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View on museum website →Medium
etching and aquatintetching with aquatint on wove Somerset paper
Classification
Department
CG-W
Museum
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Credit
Gift of Neal T. Turtell and Thomas G. Klarner
Accession Number
2022.35.4
Art Historical Context
Mel Bochner's *gravate from Schematics*2010) is a example of the artist's conceptual approach to language and visual form. A leading figure in Conceptual Art since the 1960s, Bochner transforms words into intricate images, drawing from thesauruses or diagrams to explore nuances of meaning. This etching and aquatint on wove Somerset paper belongs to his *Schematics* series where the provocative term "aggravate"—and its web of synonyms—is rendered as a dense, schematic grid, evoking both linguistic complexity and visual tension. The medium highlights Bochner's mastery of printmaking. Etching pr...