NY artist watches his language at the Jewish Museum

The raw sensory meaning of words is explored in new exhibit, ‘Mel Bochner: Strong Language’

By Cathryn J. Prince for The Times of Israel

NEW YORK — Awesome! Heart-stopping! Gaga! Meshugga! They’re just words. Or not. The Jewish Museum’s exhibit “Mel Bochner: Strong Language” explores the meaning of words. More than 70 works fill the first floor gallery space. Each one explores the tension between the visual and the verbal through the words themselves and the colors Bochner chose to paint them.

“It looks at the way your brain processes language,” said Norman Kleeblatt, the Susan and Elihu Rose Chief Curator of The Jewish Museum.

Born in 1940, Bochner is considered a pioneer of incorporating language into visual art. Growing up in an observant Jewish household, Jewish thought, wordplay and the way in which text can be manipulated have long intrigued Bochner. For Bochner, the thesaurus is a “warehouse of words.”
Kleeblatt said.

The Jewish Museum decided on an exhibition of Bochner’s work some years ago. Kleeblatt, who curated “Strong Language,” was working on acquiring a Bochner for the museum.

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