The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of September 2, 2026

A horizontally oriented lithograph depicts a cream index card with faint blue lines and a pink top margin. Thick, angular black handwriting in all caps fills the upper half, presenting a quote about mediated perception. Centered below, the name "JAMES J. GIBSON" is written in the same irregular script. The scratchy lettering contrasts with the structured rows of the card, while the bottom half remains empty.

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 2023.132.7
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/2023.132.7