The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of May 30, 2026

A horizontal arrangement depicts three rows of rectangular prints. Nine appear as lined white index cards featuring handwritten black block lettering quoting various authors. At the bottom center, a grainy black-and-white lithograph depicts a person's forearm extending into a dark frame. A tan envelope in the lower right corner bears the handwritten title "MISUNDERSTANDINGS (A THEORY OF PHOTOGRAPHY)" and the artist's name, Mel Bochner.

Misunderstandings (A Theory of Photography)

1970

Mel Bochner

(American, 1940–2025)
America
10 offset lithographs and envelope
Gift of Barbara Tannenbaum in memory of Carl Schneider 2023.132
Location: Not on view

Did You Know?

Mel Bochner has stated that the quotations in Misunderstandings “might (or might not) suggest the impossibility of a ‘theory’ of photography.”

Description

When Mel Bochner began producing photographs, he explored historical and critical writings on medium and found that “the more I read, the more I began to see it all as a colossal misunderstanding.” This artwork juxtaposes quotations from his reading that present contradictory views of the medium and its relationship to reality and reproduction with a photograph: a negative of the artist’s forearm and hand alongside a measuring stick (a symbol of verifiable fact).
  • ?–2023
    Barbara Tannenbaum, Beachwood, OH, given to The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
    September 11, 2023–
    The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
  • {{cite web|title=Misunderstandings (A Theory of Photography)|url=false|author=Mel Bochner|year=1970|access-date=30 May 2026|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/2023.132