PRODUCTIVE MISUNDERSTANDINGS: INTERPRETING MEL BOCHNER'S THEORY OF PHOTOGRAPHY.

Mel Bochner is conventionally considered a conceptual artist. Bochner, however, objects to the label and, having started his career as a painter, is now painting again. In fact he has been painting since 1973, in the immediate aftermath of the collapse of first generation conceptual art. How should Bochner's return to painting be understood? Perhaps counter-intuitively, Bochner's painting is best understood with reference to his short-lived and still little discussed photographic practice. The insights Bochner gained from his brief period of photographic experimentation are summarized in his work Misunderstandings (A Theory of Photography) (1967–70). By reconstructing and interpreting the significance of Misunderstandings for Bochner's artistic development, I reveal that it is also productive within the broader context of the ongoing reassessment of the critical significance of photoconceptualism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]