Mel Bochner (American, born 1940) is a pioneer of conceptual art. He has developed many new techniques of conceptual and installation art. In high school, he was taught art by Joseph Fitzpatrick, who promoted young talented artists. In 1962 he completed his art studies at Carnegie Mellon University in New York. Bochner studied philosophy for a short time at Northwestern University in Chicago. In the 1970s Bochner started to devote himself more to painting. His works consisted of bright colors and words, they were very conceptual, carefully planned and not very impulsive. He works with various media, such as oil on velvet or he uses glass stones and chalk on the floor. In 1995 the Yale University Art Gallery in New Haven, Connecticut showed his works in a retrospective entitled Mel Bochner: Thought Made Visible 1966-1973. In 2011, the retrospective In the Tower: Mel Bochner took place at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC.
