The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of September 2, 2026

A vertically oriented black-and-white print depicts a light-skinned person's arm, bent at the elbow, extending upward. The back of the hand faces us with fingers slightly spread. Fine hairs texture the skin, and a striped sleeve is visible at the lower left. To the right, a vertical line marks twelve inches. The high-contrast subject is set against a dark, clinical background, framed within a stark white border.

Untitled

1970

Mel Bochner

(American, 1940–2025)
America
offset lithograph
Sheet: 12.7 x 20.3 cm (5 x 8 in.)
Gift of Barbara Tannenbaum in memory of Carl Schneider 2023.132.10
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=Untitled|url=false|author=Mel Bochner|year=1970|access-date=02 September 2026|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/2023.132.10