Wittgenstein in New York (and Elsewhere) in the 1960s: From Eduardo Paolozzi to Mel Bochner

The essay provides an extensive account on the reception of Wittgenstein's texts among post-minimalist and conceptual artists in the United States at the end of the 1960s. By comparing the different approaches, and mainly focusing on the use of the Tractatus by Mel Bochner, it is possible to shed light on the different approaches to history of thinking by artists coming from different backgrounds and ultimately point out the artistic use of Wittgenstein - no matter who correctly understood or interpreted - by the artists engaged with the redefinition of artistic tenets between the late 1960s and early 1970s. In such a survey, the pioneering role of Eduardo Paolozzi's words on Wittgenstein, as attested in interviews he gave at that time, and work proved to be especially relevant, as much as the circulation of a few readers on Wittgenstein which often provided the actual sources of information for the artists, being more approachable than the original texts of the philosopher.