Mel Bochner’s Money transforms the language of wealth, excess, and desire into a bold visual experience. Built from a cascading sequence of slang—“MONEY,” “DO-RE-MI,” “ALMIGHTY DOLLAR,” “BIG BUCKS,” “FILTHY LUCRE,” “MOOLA,” and “ROOT OF ALL EVIL”—the composition explores the extraordinary number of ways money has embedded itself in everyday speech and culture. Bochner gives each phrase a commanding physical presence, using oversized lettering, saturated color, and richly textured surfaces that make the words feel almost sculptural. The humor is immediate, but beneath it lies a sharper tension: money can represent success, freedom, power, greed, temptation, and corruption all at once. The progression from the straightforward “MONEY” at the top to “ROOT OF ALL EVIL” near the bottom gives the work an especially witty and provocative trajectory. The three monumental dollar signs provide a final visual punch, turning the universal symbol of currency into something approaching an icon. Vibrant, irreverent, and intellectually engaging, the work exemplifies Bochner’s ability to make language itself the subject of art while inviting the viewer to reconsider familiar words and the complicated values attached to them.

Beyond its conceptual wit and visual impact, Money is the kind of work that would be genuinely enjoyable to live with. Its rich colors, heavily textured lettering, and larger-than-life typography give it an immediate presence, while Bochner’s playful progression of phrases rewards repeated viewing. From across a room, it functions as a striking composition of color and form; up close, the humor, wordplay, and wonderfully tactile surface continually reveal themselves. There is something both sophisticated and mischievous about the work—it can become a natural focal point in a room without feeling overly serious or precious. In a home, Money would bring energy, personality, humor, and a distinctly contemporary edge to its surroundings, while inevitably becoming a conversation piece for guests. Most importantly, it is a work with enough visual pleasure and intellectual wit that seeing it every day could remain fresh, amusing, and engaging for years to come.

Mel Bochner (1940–2025) was a pioneering American artist and one of the key figures associated with the emergence of Conceptual Art in the 1960s. Throughout his influential career, Bochner challenged traditional distinctions between language and image, treating words, numbers, measurements, and ideas as artistic materials in their own right. While his early work was often rigorous and analytical, his later text-based paintings and prints became celebrated for their exuberant color, tactile surfaces, humor, and provocative use of vernacular language. Thesaurus-like chains of synonyms, slang, clichés, and double meanings became an important part of his visual vocabulary, allowing him to examine how language shapes perception and how seemingly ordinary words can carry powerful social and cultural associations. Works centered on subjects such as money, desire, identity, and value demonstrate Bochner’s distinctive ability to unite the intellectual legacy of Conceptual Art with the immediate pleasures of color, typography, and materiality. His work is represented in major museum collections internationally, and his enduring influence lies in helping establish language not simply as something that can appear within a work of art, but as a compelling visual medium in itself.

Created in 2021, Mel Bochner Money is monoprint in three parts in oil paint with collage, engraving and embossment on handmade paper. Hand-signed and dated by Mel Bochner (Pittsburgh, 1940 - New York, 2026) in pencil. Mel Bochner Money, 2021 is a unique and original work.

Catalogue Raisonné & COA:
1. Bochner, Mel. Monoprints: Mel Bochner: Words, Words, Words…New York: Two Palms, 2012. A similar monoprint in a different color and size listed and illustrated as catalogue raisonné no. 15.
2. A Certificate of Authenticity will accompany this artwork.

Provenance:
David Zwirner Art Gallery, New York, NY

About the Framing:
Framed to museum-grade, conservation standards, Mel Bochner Head Honcho, 2020 is presented in a complementary moulding.

Selling you Mel Bochner:
If you are considering selling a Mel Bochner monotype, painting, print, or other original work, we invite you to contact us for a confidential review of your artwork. We are actively interested in acquiring works by Mel Bochner (1940–2025) and welcome inquiries from private collectors, estates, advisors, and others who own works by this important American Conceptual artist. We have a particular interest in Mel Bochner monotypes and unique text-based works, including his celebrated compositions incorporating bold words, phrases, synonyms, slang, richly textured surfaces, and vibrant color. If you are wondering “What is my Mel Bochner worth?” “Who buys Mel Bochner art?” or “How can I sell my Mel Bochner privately?”, we would be pleased to help you understand the work and your options. The value of a Mel Bochner can vary depending on its medium, dimensions, date, subject or text, condition, provenance, exhibition history, and current market demand, with his monotypes being especially compelling because each is a unique work rather than an editioned impression. To have a work considered, simply send us clear photographs of the front and back along with the title, dimensions, medium, date, provenance, and any signatures, inscriptions, gallery labels, invoices, or certificates you may have; even if you do not have all of this information, we would still be happy to hear from you. Some collectors prefer the discretion, convenience, and certainty of a private sale of their Mel Bochner rather than offering the work publicly at auction, and contacting us carries no obligation to sell. As one of the pioneering figures of Conceptual Art, Bochner helped redefine contemporary art by making language, numbers, measurement, and ideas themselves artistic subjects, and his later paintings and monotypes—with their distinctive typography, humor, tactile surfaces, and exuberant color—have become among his most recognizable works. If you own a Mel Bochner monotype, painting, print, drawing, or work on paper and are thinking about selling it, please contact us—we would be delighted to learn more about your artwork and discuss a potential private acquisition.

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