Sharon Butler blogs about Mel Bochner's Thesaurus Series, now on view in the exhibition In the Tower: Mel Bochner at National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC. on view through April 8, 2012.

Butler writes that "The 'Thesaurus' series began with small word-based pieces in the 1960s. Using ink on graph paper Bochner made experimental portraits based on synonyms found in Roget's Thesaurus… [Bochner] returns to Roget's as the subject for a new series of paintings… In [the new paintings] Bochner's engagement shifts from questioning boundaries to a more formal exploration of color and facture."