The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of November 4, 2026

A horizontally oriented index card is ruled with light blue lines and a pink margin. Dense black ink forms handwritten, all-caps lettering starting "LET US REMEMBER TOO..." Below, "LUDWIG WITTGENSTEIN" is inscribed in larger, angular characters toward the right. The script features deliberate, slightly irregular strokes that contrast with the card's precise, linear grid.

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 2023.132.5
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=04 November 2026|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/2023.132.5