Mel Bochner is recognized as one of the pioneers in the development of Conceptual Art, leading the introduction of language into visual art in work that has spanned painting, drawing, printmaking, photography, and installation. Bochner has consistently probed the conventions of both visual art and language, revealing unspoken codes that underpin our engagement with each.

Bochner received his BFA from the Carnegie Institute of Technology in Pittsburgh in 1962. Shortly after moving to New York City in 1964, he became involved in two of the major movements of the period—Minimal Art, which was already being developed by artists such as Donald Judd, Dan Flavin, and Sol LeWitt, and Conceptual Art, a then-nascent movement of which Bochner would become a key figure. In 1966 he organized the exhibition Working Drawings And Other Visible Things On Paper Not Necessarily Meant To Be Viewed As Art at the School of Visual Arts, New York—a show that is now considered to be one of the first Conceptual Art exhibitions. The same year Bochner began making photo works, including his important 36 Photographs and 12 Diagrams, which was exhibited at Dwan Gallery, New York, in 1967. In 1969 the artist created his now-famous Measurement Room at Galerie Heiner Friedrich in Munich, Germany.