Abstract

This article explores the evolving manifestations of Yiddish in the work of contemporary artist Mel Bochner. A founding figure of American conceptual art, Bochner has continuously re-examined the unstable nature of language. Yet, as the following paper will argue, Bochner’s postvernacular invocation of Yiddish calls into crisis this central contention of his work. Beginning with an analysis of selected works from his post-2000 Thesaurus Paintings, I suggest that Yiddish first served Bochner as a tool to confirm the instability of language by highlighting the futility of the idea of the synonym. I then turn to the multi-site work The Joys of Yiddish, which was mounted in Chicago (2006) and Munich (2013), to demonstrate the shift that occurs in Bochner’s subsequent Yiddish-themed art. Analyzing The Joys of Yiddish, I show that Bochner deploys a vision of Yiddish that is based on a set of received assumptions and stereotypes promulgated in twentieth-century American popular culture. As will become clear, Bochner’s conception of Yiddish produces a surfeit of questions not about the language’s complexity or instability but about its superficiality and anticipated signification. Extending Bochner’s painterly assertion that “language is not transparent,” this article asks: What about Yiddish?

摘要

本文探讨意第绪语在当代艺术家梅尔·博赫纳的作品中不断演变的表现形式。作为美国观念艺术的奠基人，博赫纳不断重新审视语言的不稳定本质。然而，正如下面的论文将论证的那样，博赫纳对意第绪语的后白话调用将他的工作的这一核心论点陷入危机。从分析他 2000 年后词库绘画中的精选作品开始，我建议意第绪语首先将 Bochner 作为一种工具，通过强调同义词概念的徒劳性来确认语言的不稳定性。然后我转向多站点工作意第绪语的乐趣，在芝加哥（2006 年）和慕尼黑（2013 年）安装，以展示博赫纳随后以意第绪语为主题的艺术中发生的转变。分析意第绪语的乐趣，我表明博赫纳部署了意第绪语的愿景，该愿景基于 20 世纪美国流行文化中公布的一系列公认假设和刻板印象。很明显，博赫纳对意第绪语的概念产生了过多的问题，不是关于语言的复杂性或不稳定性，而是关于它的肤浅和预期的意义。这篇文章扩展了 Bochner 的“语言不透明”的绘画断言：那么意第绪语呢？