Rules of Inference
Mel Bochner
-
Date:1974 -
Style:Conceptual Art -
Genre:abstract -
Media:aquatint -
Location:Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), New York City, NY, US
Rules of Inference
Mel Bochner
Rules of Inference is based on two similarly titled previous works: a site-specific floor installation from 1972 and a charcoal-and-gouache drawing from 1973. In the installation, the numbers from one through nine are represented by configurations of pebbles inferred from mathematical principles and connected by chalk lines. The drawing echoes the installation, with black circles on white paper. The third generation of this Conceptual work is the print, with a deep black aquatint surface that does not include connective lines. Its impact is of a more indeterminate and mysterious nature than its predecessors, obscuring the artist's basis in logic and certainty. In fact, the subject of all these works is not the specific mathematical principles from which they were derived, but rather the relationships between things and the process of perceiving these relationships. (Raimond Livasgani)
More ...