Bruce Nauman
'Since the 1960s, Bruce Nauman's radical interdisciplinary approach has challenged conventions while producing new methodologies for creating art and meaning. His rigorous, ascetic engagement with the existential dichotomies of life/death, love/hate, pleasure/pain has embraced performance, video, holography, installation, sculpture, and drawing. From the attitudes and forms of his Post–Minimalist and Conceptual work to his most recent sound installations, persistent themes and ideas appear: the use of the body as material; the relationship between image and language, art and viewer; and the generative interaction of positive and negative space.' (Gagosian, no date)
His work is interdisciplicnary, challenging conventions and it also deals with dichotomies or boundaries. He uses his body as material.
His work is interdisciplicnary, challenging conventions and it also deals with dichotomies or boundaries. He uses his body as material.
His early work just used his body, as material, in performance
Obsessed with language, sense, but also nonsense
Funny, but violent
Uses many different media.
The artist's block is to him 'like gesso on a canvas for a painter'.
Humorous - eg 7 figures 1985, neon porn
Ugly art!
Obsessed with language, sense, but also nonsense
Funny, but violent
Uses many different media.
The artist's block is to him 'like gesso on a canvas for a painter'.
Humorous - eg 7 figures 1985, neon porn
Ugly art!
'Kathy Halbreich, who curated the retrospective, argues in her catalogue essay that absence is a recurring theme in Nauman’s work, or, to spin it another way, he makes absence visible, almost tangible, in a neo-Beckettian way.' (in Amy, 2020)
'For instance, if we believe the title of A Cast of the Space Under My Chair (1965–68)—which is somewhat akin to a painting by Piet Mondrian, developed in the third dimension and all gray--the intangible becomes quite literally concrete; nothingness takes on solidity, weightlessness is replaced with ponderous mass, transparency with opacity, and fluidity with a full stop. Placed directly on the ground, this object becomes an obstacle, reminiscent of Ad Reinhardt’s well-known statement about sculpture.
Nauman has an abiding interest in fragments, which evoke breakdown and eventual disappearance or death. They inevitably make us wonder exactly what is missing. Henry Moore Bound to Fail, Back View (1967/1970) constitutes a fragment of a human body, as do From Hand to Mouth (1967) and the epoxy resin and fiberglass heads in Three Heads Fountain (Juliet, Andrew, Rinde) and Three Heads Fountain (Three Andrews) (both 2005), where they are suspended in clusters and gushing water in different directions from different orifices. The hyperrealist fountain heads evoke countless classical heads knocked off marble statues, Géricault’s grim painting of the severed heads of prisoners, and the fate of Holofernes in Donatello’s bronze statue of Judith, planned for a fountain in the garden of the Palazzo Medici in Florence.' (Amy, 2020)
'For instance, if we believe the title of A Cast of the Space Under My Chair (1965–68)—which is somewhat akin to a painting by Piet Mondrian, developed in the third dimension and all gray--the intangible becomes quite literally concrete; nothingness takes on solidity, weightlessness is replaced with ponderous mass, transparency with opacity, and fluidity with a full stop. Placed directly on the ground, this object becomes an obstacle, reminiscent of Ad Reinhardt’s well-known statement about sculpture.
Nauman has an abiding interest in fragments, which evoke breakdown and eventual disappearance or death. They inevitably make us wonder exactly what is missing. Henry Moore Bound to Fail, Back View (1967/1970) constitutes a fragment of a human body, as do From Hand to Mouth (1967) and the epoxy resin and fiberglass heads in Three Heads Fountain (Juliet, Andrew, Rinde) and Three Heads Fountain (Three Andrews) (both 2005), where they are suspended in clusters and gushing water in different directions from different orifices. The hyperrealist fountain heads evoke countless classical heads knocked off marble statues, Géricault’s grim painting of the severed heads of prisoners, and the fate of Holofernes in Donatello’s bronze statue of Judith, planned for a fountain in the garden of the Palazzo Medici in Florence.' (Amy, 2020)
Stamping in the studio, 1968
Video, black and white, sound, approx 60 min repeated continuously
Video, black and white, sound, approx 60 min repeated continuously
I find these films very exciting. They've very basic and repetitive. Simple. Black and white. Looped. They make me think of possibilities for my videoed performances. Mine are relatively spontaneous, intuitive. Until now I've just thought of them as sketches, interesting sketches, from which I've taken poses to inform my metal body sculptures. Could I regard them as finished pieces? I need to think further about this...
Amy, M. (2020) Bruce Nauman, endurance act Available at: https://sculpturemagazine.art/bruce-nauman-endurance-act/ (Accessed 1 November 2020)
Chau, Can (2015) Bruce Nauman Stampin in the studio, 1968 Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YRF5FukKiCo (Accesssed: 3 November 2020)
Gagosian (no date) Bruce Nauman Available at: gagosian.com/artists/bruce-nauman/ (Accessed; 31 October 2020)
Tate (2006) Bruce Nauman: make me think me Exhibition at Tate Liverpool, 19 May -28 Aug. Available at: https://www.tate.org.uk/whats-on/tate-liverpool/exhibition/bruce-nauman-make-me-think-me/bruce-nauman-make-me-think-me-1(Accessed 3 November 2020)
Tate (2017) Bruce Nauman -'The true artist helps the world' Available at : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0JsqVlo5Me0 (Accessed 29 October 2020)
Chau, Can (2015) Bruce Nauman Stampin in the studio, 1968 Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YRF5FukKiCo (Accesssed: 3 November 2020)
Gagosian (no date) Bruce Nauman Available at: gagosian.com/artists/bruce-nauman/ (Accessed; 31 October 2020)
Tate (2006) Bruce Nauman: make me think me Exhibition at Tate Liverpool, 19 May -28 Aug. Available at: https://www.tate.org.uk/whats-on/tate-liverpool/exhibition/bruce-nauman-make-me-think-me/bruce-nauman-make-me-think-me-1(Accessed 3 November 2020)
Tate (2017) Bruce Nauman -'The true artist helps the world' Available at : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0JsqVlo5Me0 (Accessed 29 October 2020)