{"id":85133,"date":"2015-04-30T16:16:18","date_gmt":"2015-04-30T20:16:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/?p=85133"},"modified":"2015-04-30T16:28:28","modified_gmt":"2015-04-30T20:28:28","slug":"prim-and-proper-crude-and-vulgar","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/04\/30\/prim-and-proper-crude-and-vulgar\/","title":{"rendered":"Prim and Proper, Crude and Vulgar"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_85189\" style=\"width: 610px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/enough-said-mb3-400small.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-85189\" class=\"wp-image-85189 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/enough-said-mb3-400small.jpg\" alt=\"Enough Said\" width=\"600\" height=\"482\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/enough-said-mb3-400small.jpg 600w, https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/enough-said-mb3-400small-300x241.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (min-width: 62.5em) 67vw, 100vw\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-85189\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Mel Bochner, <i>Enough Said<\/i>, 2012, oil on canvas, 24&#8243; x 30&#8243;. \u00a9 Mel Bochner<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Our <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/back-issues\/212\" target=\"_blank\">Spring issue<\/a>, available now, features \u201cThesaurus Paintings,\u201d a portfolio of text-based paintings and drawings from Mel Bochner. They have a focus on ordinary language, specifically the \u201cemotional trajectory\u201d that emerges when one riffs on words and phrases of a certain theme. The direction, Bochner says, is evident in<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>how one gets from the first word to the last word\u2014from the prim and proper to the crude and vulgar. I concentrate a lot on the sense and sound of the language. The flow of words has to have a certain kind of rhythm\u2014or a certain kind of lack of rhythm. That\u2019s how the narrative of the painting is constructed.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>You can see what he means by looking at <em>Easy\/Difficult<\/em>, a painting that wends its way from a breezy, \u201ceasy\u201d high point, to, well, \u201csome deep shit,\u201d as optimism shades into fatalism: <!--more--><\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_85331\" style=\"width: 610px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/bochner.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-85331\" class=\"wp-image-85331\" src=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/bochner.jpg\" alt=\"bochner\" width=\"600\" height=\"803\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/bochner.jpg 1463w, https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/bochner-224x300.jpg 224w, https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/bochner-765x1024.jpg 765w\" sizes=\"auto, (min-width: 62.5em) 67vw, 100vw\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-85331\" class=\"wp-caption-text\"><i>Easy\/Difficult<\/i>, 2014, oil on canvas, 48&#8243; x 36&#8243;.<\/p><\/div>\n<p>The work often garners surprising reactions, as <em>The New Yorker<\/em> noted last year <a href=\"http:\/\/www.newyorker.com\/culture\/culture-desk\/mel-bochners-thesaurus-paintings\" target=\"_blank\">in an interview with Bochner<\/a>:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>\u201cOne of the guards came up to the curator and said that my show had meant a great deal to all of them, because of this painting,\u201d Bochner said, gesturing toward <em>Die<\/em>, a thesaurus painting against a Pepto-Bismol-pink background that begins, \u201cDIE, DECEASE, EXPIRE, PERISH, SUCCUMB, PASS AWAY.\u201d \u201cSome of them had looked at it and cried,\u201d Bochner said. \u201cNow, I couldn\u2019t have anticipated that response. I never thought, What would a war veteran think looking at a painting that said, \u2018Buy the farm, cash in your chips, kick the bucket\u2019?\u201d He paused. \u201cYou put these things out in the world and you just back off, let people make of it what they want.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Born in Pittsburgh, in 1940, Bochner began to show his work in the midsixties; he designed a cover for <em>The Paris Review<\/em>\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/back-issues\/56\">Spring 1973 issue<\/a>.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_85332\" style=\"width: 610px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/56.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-85332\" class=\"wp-image-85332\" src=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/56.jpg\" alt=\"56\" width=\"600\" height=\"985\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/56.jpg 759w, https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/56-183x300.jpg 183w, https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/56-624x1024.jpg 624w\" sizes=\"auto, (min-width: 62.5em) 67vw, 100vw\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-85332\" class=\"wp-caption-text\"><i>Meditation on the Theorem of Pythagoras.<\/i><\/p><\/div>\n<p>As coincidence has it, he has a show up now with work very much in the vein of that cover: New Yorkers can see a collection of his early drawings at <a href=\"http:\/\/starr-art.com\/\">Craig F. Starr Gallery<\/a> through May 22. Some samples:<\/p>\n<p><div id=\"attachment_85188\" style=\"width: 610px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/mel-bochner_plan-for-color-photo-piece.1967.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-85188\" class=\"wp-image-85188\" src=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/mel-bochner_plan-for-color-photo-piece.1967.jpg\" alt=\"Mel-Bochner_Plan-for-Color-Photo-Piece.1967\" width=\"600\" height=\"405\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/mel-bochner_plan-for-color-photo-piece.1967.jpg 700w, https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/mel-bochner_plan-for-color-photo-piece.1967-300x203.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (min-width: 62.5em) 67vw, 100vw\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-85188\" class=\"wp-caption-text\"><i>Plan for Color Photo Piece<\/i>, 1967, ink, felt tip pen, and pencil on graph paper, 13&#8243; x 19&#8243;.<\/p><\/div> <div id=\"attachment_85190\" style=\"width: 610px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/mel-bochner_solid-with-three-volumes-subtracted.1966.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-85190\" class=\"wp-image-85190\" src=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/mel-bochner_solid-with-three-volumes-subtracted.1966.jpg\" alt=\"Mel-Bochner_Solid-with-Three-Volumes-Subtracted.1966\" width=\"600\" height=\"457\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/mel-bochner_solid-with-three-volumes-subtracted.1966.jpg 650w, https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/mel-bochner_solid-with-three-volumes-subtracted.1966-300x228.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (min-width: 62.5em) 67vw, 100vw\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-85190\" class=\"wp-caption-text\"><i>Solid with Three Volumes Subtracted<\/i>, 1966, ink on graph paper, 5 1\u20442&#8243; x 11&#8243;.<\/p><\/div> <div id=\"attachment_85191\" style=\"width: 610px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/mel-bochner_triangulations-3-3-3_1966.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-85191\" class=\"wp-image-85191\" src=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/mel-bochner_triangulations-3-3-3_1966.jpg\" alt=\"Mel-Bochner_Triangulations-3-3-3_1966\" width=\"600\" height=\"471\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/mel-bochner_triangulations-3-3-3_1966.jpg 650w, https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/mel-bochner_triangulations-3-3-3_1966-300x235.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (min-width: 62.5em) 67vw, 100vw\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-85191\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Mel Bochner, <em>Triangulations (3\/3\/3)<\/em>, 1966, ink and spray paint on paper, 18 3\u20444&#8243; x 24&#8243;.<\/p><\/div><\/p>\n<div class=\"page\" title=\"Page 253\">\u00a0<em>Dan Piepenbring is the web editor of <\/em>The Paris Review.<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Our Spring issue, available now, features \u201cThesaurus Paintings,\u201d a portfolio of text-based paintings and drawings from Mel Bochner. They have a focus on ordinary language, specifically the \u201cemotional trajectory\u201d that emerges when one riffs on words and phrases of a certain theme. The direction, Bochner says, is evident in how one gets from the first [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":38,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2384],"tags":[35,17965,12976,17966,687,17227,4154,17964,17963,2393],"class_list":["post-85133","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-look","tag-art","tag-craig-f-starr","tag-drawings","tag-geometry","tag-language","tag-mel-bochner","tag-paintings","tag-the-new-york","tag-thesauruses","tag-words"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v25.4 (Yoast SEO v25.4) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Look: Mel Bochner\u2019s Thesaurus Paintings<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The painter\u2019s singular takes on language appear in our Spring Issue.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/04\/30\/prim-and-proper-crude-and-vulgar\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Prim and Proper, Crude and Vulgar by Dan Piepenbring\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"April 30, 2015 \u2013 Our Spring issue, available now, features \u201cThesaurus Paintings,\u201d a portfolio of text-based paintings and drawings from Mel Bochner. 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