Whitechapel gallery

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Whitechapel Gallery Mel Bochner and Hayward Gallery Art of Change



Asked if I had enjoyed the exhibition, I responded with a definite no, why - I am not sure, nothing made me feel emotional apart from something that I had watched in the reeled films being shown in the gallery and unrelated to the MB Exhibition  .  I actually wonder now if that had effected the way I approached the exhibition.


I found the gallery difficult to follow and kept ending up where I had just been or not being sure which way I did want to go.

At home I  looked at Mel Bochner on line, and wished very much that I had done this before visiting the Gallery. He was the son of a sign writer and has used the skills he learned from his father, in his Thesaurus paintings. He uses the round ended script , I think it is Palmer script, because you only need one brush stoke, with square ends you need three!

Reading about him and then listening to a National Gallery of Art, notable lectures pod cast-Mel Bochner in conversation with James Meyer, really provided a better understanding about his work, he seems to have a great sense of humour  and I just love this that MB quoted:


Clement Greenberg on Mel Bochner's work:
CG:I don't like to think when I look at a work of art
MB:wow, how do you stop yourself?
CG:one of us is right
..... and left!

I now think that going to see the exhibition first and then finding out more after in this case has worked well for me.
Interestingly I did not enjoyed the 'Art of Change' at the Hayward, I had expected some performance and saw nothing during the whole time I was there, and I have not been drawn to follow this exhibition up yet.