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Some of his best-known works include:
Some of his best-known works include:


*'''Laair''' (1970) – A soft-cover [[artist's book]], featuring only 10 color illustrations [photographs] of the Los Angeles skyline. No text.
*'''Laair''' (1970)<ref name=LAAIR on ubuweb>{{cite web|title=LAAIR on ubuweb|url=http://www.ubu.com/historical/nauman/index.html=2012=03-20}}</ref> – A soft-cover [[artist's book]], featuring only 10 color illustrations [photographs] of the Los Angeles skyline. No text.
*'''Clown Torture''' – in separate stacked video screens, a clown screaming "No" repeatedly, a clown telling an annoying children's joke, a clown balancing goldfish bowls, and a clown sitting on a public toilet.
*'''Clown Torture'''<ref name=Clown torture on vimeo>{{cite web|title=Clown torture on vimeo|url=http://vimeo.com/20303026|accessdate=2012=03-20}}</ref> – in separate stacked video screens, a clown screaming "No" repeatedly, a clown telling an annoying children's joke, a clown balancing goldfish bowls, and a clown sitting on a public toilet.
*'''Vices and Virtues''' (1988)<ref name=Vices and Virtues on PBS>{{cite web|title=Vices and Virtues on PBS|url=http://www.pbs.org/art21/images/bruce-nauman/vices-and-virtues-installation-views-1983-1988|accessdate=2012=03-20}}</ref> – Atop the Charles Lee Powell Structural Systems Laboratory on the campus of the [[University of California, San Diego]] as part of the [[Stuart Collection]] of public art: neon signs seven feet tall, alternating the seven vices and seven virtues: FAITH/LUST, HOPE/ENVY, CHARITY/SLOTH, PRUDENCE/PRIDE, JUSTICE/AVARICE, TEMPERANCE/GLUTTONY, and FORTITUDE/ANGER.
*'''Vices and Virtues''' (1988)<ref name=Vices and Virtues on PBS>{{cite web|title=Vices and Virtues on PBS|url=http://www.pbs.org/art21/images/bruce-nauman/vices-and-virtues-installation-views-1983-1988|accessdate=2012=03-20}}</ref> – Atop the Charles Lee Powell Structural Systems Laboratory on the campus of the [[University of California, San Diego]] as part of the [[Stuart Collection]] of public art: neon signs seven feet tall, alternating the seven vices and seven virtues: FAITH/LUST, HOPE/ENVY, CHARITY/SLOTH, PRUDENCE/PRIDE, JUSTICE/AVARICE, TEMPERANCE/GLUTTONY, and FORTITUDE/ANGER.
*'''The True Artist Helps the World by Revealing Mystic Truths'''<ref name=Philadelphia Museum of Art>{{cite web|title=Philadelphia Museum of Art on PBS|url=http://www.philamuseum.org/collections/permanent/31965.html|accessdate=2012=03-20}}</ref> – a spiraling neon sign with this slogan.
*'''The True Artist Helps the World by Revealing Mystic Truths'''<ref name=Philadelphia Museum of Art>{{cite web|title=Philadelphia Museum of Art on PBS|url=http://www.philamuseum.org/collections/permanent/31965.html|accessdate=2012=03-20}}</ref> – a spiraling neon sign with this slogan.
*'''Setting a Good Corner''' – looping video of the artist setting a corner fencepost.
*'''Setting a Good Corner'''<ref name=Setting a good corner>{{cite web|title=Setting a good corner|url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OC9Y32s5ECA|accessdate=2012=03-20}}</ref> – looping video of the artist setting a corner fencepost.
*'''World Peace''' – five projectors or video players displaying four women and a man each speaking simultaneous monologues about world peace.
*'''World Peace'''<ref name=Peace>{{cite web|title=Peace|url=http://www.speronewestwater.com/cgi-bin/iowa/exhibits/record.html?record=40|accessdate=2012=03-20}}</ref>– five projectors or video players displaying four women and a man each speaking simultaneous monologues about world peace.
*'''Learned Helplessness in Rats (Rock and Roll Drummer)''' – maze, closed circuit video camera, video projector, two videotape players, two monitors, and two videotapes. Collection of MOMA.
*'''Learned Helplessness in Rats (Rock and Roll Drummer)'''<ref name=Learned Helplessness in Rats (Rock and Roll Drummer)>{{cite web|title=Learned Helplessness in Rats (Rock and Roll Drummer)|url=http://www.moma.org/collection/object.php?object_id=81490=2012=03-20}}</ref> – maze, closed circuit video camera, video projector, two videotape players, two monitors, and two videotapes. Collection of MOMA.
*'''Henry Moore bound to fail, back view'''(1967–1970) – In 2001, this work sold for $9 million at auction. This is one of the highest prices paid for Nauman's work.<ref>[http://artsalesindex.artinfo.com/artsalesindex/asi/lots/7978091 Auction Result: Bruce Nauman's ''Henry Moore bound to fail, back view'']</ref>
*'''Henry Moore bound to fail, back view'''(1967–1970)<ref name=Henry Moor bound to fail>{{cite web|title=Henry Moor bound to fail|url=http://www.artnet.com/Artists/LotDetailPage.aspx?lot_id=CC9226DEEA6DFFC1|accessdate=2012=03-20}}</ref> – In 2001, this work sold for $9 million at auction. This is one of the highest prices paid for Nauman's work.<ref>[http://artsalesindex.artinfo.com/artsalesindex/asi/lots/7978091 Auction Result: Bruce Nauman's ''Henry Moore bound to fail, back view'']</ref>
*'''Raw Materials''' (2004) – displayed in the Turbine Hall of the [[Tate Modern]]; successfully included a lifetime of text pieces into a single Gesamtkunstwerk-''cum''-audio retrospective.<ref name="BM MP"/>
*'''Raw Materials''' (2004)<ref name=Tate>{{cite web|title=Tate|url=http://www.tate.org.uk/modern/exhibitions/nauman/|accessdate=2012=03-20}}</ref> – displayed in the Turbine Hall of the [[Tate Modern]]; successfully included a lifetime of text pieces into a single Gesamtkunstwerk-''cum''-audio retrospective.<ref name="BM MP"/>
*'''Untitled "Leave the Land Alone"''' (1969/2009) – premiered as a public skywriting project over Pasadena for the Armory Center for the Arts in September 2009, initiated by curator [[Andrew Berardini]]. This work connects with LAAIR as well as lambastes the [[Land Art]] movement<ref>[http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/culturemonster/2009/08/bruce-naumans-airborne-ambitions.html ''Bruce Nauman's Airborne Ambitions'' LA Times, August 6, 2009]</ref>
*'''Untitled "Leave the Land Alone"''' (1969/2009)<ref name=Untitled "Leave the Land Alone>{{cite web|title=Untitled "Leave the Land Alone|url=http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2493/4033487240_5503598765.jpg|accessdate=2012=03-20}}</ref> – premiered as a public skywriting project over Pasadena for the Armory Center for the Arts in September 2009, initiated by curator [[Andrew Berardini]]. This work connects with LAAIR as well as lambastes the [[Land Art]] movement<ref>[http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/culturemonster/2009/08/bruce-naumans-airborne-ambitions.html ''Bruce Nauman's Airborne Ambitions'' LA Times, August 6, 2009]</ref>
* '''Days''' (2009) – two rows of wafer-thin white speakers that played voices chanting the days of the week. Purchased in a 50–50 deal by the [[Museum of Modern Art]] in New York and [[Maja Oeri]], a MoMA trustee whose Emanuel Hoffmann Foundation is at the [[Schaulager]] in Basel, Switzerland.<ref name="nytimes.com">Carol Vogel (July 7, 2011), [http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/08/arts/design/2-continents-1-work-and-31-hand-positions.html?_r=1&ref=design 2 Continents, 1 Work and 31 Hand Positions] ''New York Times''.</ref>
* '''Days''' (2009)<ref name=MoMa>{{cite web|title=MoMa|url=http://www.moma.org/visit/calendar/exhibitions/1060|accessdate=2012=03-20}}</ref> – two rows of wafer-thin white speakers that played voices chanting the days of the week. Purchased in a 50–50 deal by the [[Museum of Modern Art]] in New York and Maja Oeri, a MoMA trustee whose Emanuel Hoffmann Foundation is at the [[Schaulager]] in Basel, Switzerland.<ref name="nytimes.com">Carol Vogel (July 7, 2011), [http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/08/arts/design/2-continents-1-work-and-31-hand-positions.html?_r=1&ref=design 2 Continents, 1 Work and 31 Hand Positions] ''New York Times''.</ref>
* '''For Beginners (all the combinations of the thumb and fingers)''' (2010) – video depicting Nauman’s hands enacting all the possible combinations of the four fingers and thumb – 31 positions in all – accompanied by his verbal enumeration of each finger combination. Purchased in a 50–50 deal by [[François Pinault]] and [[LACMA]].<ref name="nytimes.com"/>
* '''For Beginners (all the combinations of the thumb and fingers)''' (2010)<ref name=LACMA>{{cite web|title=LACMA|url=http://www.lacma.org/art/installation/bruce-nauman-beginners|accessdate=2012=03-20}}</ref>– video depicting Nauman’s hands enacting all the possible combinations of the four fingers and thumb – 31 positions in all – accompanied by his verbal enumeration of each finger combination. Purchased in a 50–50 deal by [[François Pinault]] and [[LACMA]].<ref name="nytimes.com"/>


==References and further reading==
==References and further reading==

Revision as of 22:24, 21 March 2012

Bruce Nauman
150PX
Bruce Nauman, Human/Need/Desire, 1983
Born (1941-12-06) December 6, 1941 (age 82)
Fort Wayne, Indiana
NationalityAmerican
EducationUniversity of Wisconsin–Madison and University of California, Davis
Known forsculpture, photography, neon, video, drawing and performance
Notable work"Laair," 1970, "Human/Need/Desire," 1983
AwardsLarry Aldrich Award

Bruce Nauman (born December 6, 1941) is a contemporary American artist. His practice spans a broad range of media including sculpture, photography, neon, video, drawing, printmaking, and performance. Nauman lives in Galisteo, New Mexico.

Life and work

Nauman was born in Fort Wayne, Indiana. He studied mathematics and physics at the University of Wisconsin–Madison (1960–64), and art with William T. Wiley and Robert Arneson at the University of California, Davis (1965–6). In 1964 he gave up painting to dedicate himself to sculpture, performance and cinema collaborations with William Allan and Robert Nelson. He worked as an assistant to Wayne Thiebaud. Upon graduation (MFA, 1966), he taught at the San Francisco Art Institute from 1966 to 1968, and at the University of California at Irvine in 1970. In 1968 he met the singer and performance artist Meredith Monk and signed with the dealer Leo Castelli. Nauman moved from Northern California to Pasadena in 1969. In 1979, Nauman further moved to New Mexico where he continues to work and live along with his wife, the painter Susan Rothenberg.

Confronted with “What to do?” in his studio soon after graduating, Nauman had the simple but profound realization that “If I was an artist and I was in the studio, then whatever I was doing in the studio must be art. At this point art became more of an activity and less of a product.”[1] Between 1966 and 1970 he made several videos, in which he used his body to explore the potentials of art and the role of the artist, and to investigate psychological states and behavioural codes. Much of his work is characterized by an interest in language, often manifesting itself in a playful, mischievous manner. For example, the neon Run From Fear – Fun From Rear, or the photograph Bound To Fail, which literalizes the title phrase and shows the artist's arms tied behind his back. There are however, very serious concerns at the heart of Nauman's practice. He seems to be fascinated by the nature of communication and language's inherent problems, as well as the role of the artist as supposed communicator and manipulator of visual symbols.

Nauman began in the 1960s with exhibitions at Nick Wilder’s gallery in Los Angeles and in New York at Leo Castelli in 1968 along with early solo shows at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and the Whitney Museum in 1972. Through most of his midcareer until the early 1980s he flew just below the radar of art market experts.[2]

His Self Portrait as a Fountain (1966) shows the artist spouting a stream of water from his mouth. At the end of the 1960s, Nauman began constructing claustrophobic and enclosed corridors and rooms that could be entered by visitors and which evoked the experience of being locked in and of being abandoned. A series of works inspired by one of the artist's dreams was brought together under the title of Dream Passage and created in 1983, 1984, and 1988.[3] In his installation Changing Light Corridor with Rooms (1971), a long corridor is shrouded in darkness, whilst two rooms on either side are illuminated by bulbs that are timed to flash at different rates.[4]



Exhibitions

Collections

Nauman's work is in the collections of the Kunstmuseum Basel [5]; the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum [6] and the Museum of Modern Art in New York [14]; the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington, DC [15]; and the Tate Modern [7] in London among many others.

Honors

Fifteen Pairs of Hands (1996) in the collection of the National Gallery of Art

Bruce Nauman holds honorary Doctor of Fine Arts degree from the San Francisco Art Institute and the California Institute of the Arts.

  • 1993- Wolf Prize in Arts (an Israeli award) for his distinguished work as a sculptor and his extraordinary contribution to twentieth-century art
  • 1999- Golden Lion of the Venice Biennale Cite error: The <ref> tag has too many names (see the help page)..

Influences

Nauman cites Samuel Beckett, Ludwig Wittgenstein, John Cage, Philip Glass, La Monte Young and Meredith Monk as major influences on his work. Nauman was a part of the Process Art Movement.

Works

Some of his best-known works include:

  • Laair (1970)Cite error: The <ref> tag has too many names (see the help page). – A soft-cover artist's book, featuring only 10 color illustrations [photographs] of the Los Angeles skyline. No text.
  • Clown TortureCite error: The <ref> tag has too many names (see the help page). – in separate stacked video screens, a clown screaming "No" repeatedly, a clown telling an annoying children's joke, a clown balancing goldfish bowls, and a clown sitting on a public toilet.
  • Vices and Virtues (1988)Cite error: The <ref> tag has too many names (see the help page). – Atop the Charles Lee Powell Structural Systems Laboratory on the campus of the University of California, San Diego as part of the Stuart Collection of public art: neon signs seven feet tall, alternating the seven vices and seven virtues: FAITH/LUST, HOPE/ENVY, CHARITY/SLOTH, PRUDENCE/PRIDE, JUSTICE/AVARICE, TEMPERANCE/GLUTTONY, and FORTITUDE/ANGER.
  • The True Artist Helps the World by Revealing Mystic TruthsCite error: The <ref> tag has too many names (see the help page). – a spiraling neon sign with this slogan.
  • Setting a Good CornerCite error: The <ref> tag has too many names (see the help page). – looping video of the artist setting a corner fencepost.
  • World Peace[17]– five projectors or video players displaying four women and a man each speaking simultaneous monologues about world peace.
  • Learned Helplessness in Rats (Rock and Roll Drummer)Cite error: The <ref> tag has too many names (see the help page). – maze, closed circuit video camera, video projector, two videotape players, two monitors, and two videotapes. Collection of MOMA.
  • Henry Moore bound to fail, back view(1967–1970)Cite error: The <ref> tag has too many names (see the help page). – In 2001, this work sold for $9 million at auction. This is one of the highest prices paid for Nauman's work.[18]
  • Raw Materials (2004)[7] – displayed in the Turbine Hall of the Tate Modern; successfully included a lifetime of text pieces into a single Gesamtkunstwerk-cum-audio retrospective.[2]
  • Untitled "Leave the Land Alone" (1969/2009)Cite error: The <ref> tag has too many names (see the help page). – premiered as a public skywriting project over Pasadena for the Armory Center for the Arts in September 2009, initiated by curator Andrew Berardini. This work connects with LAAIR as well as lambastes the Land Art movement[19]
  • Days (2009)[20] – two rows of wafer-thin white speakers that played voices chanting the days of the week. Purchased in a 50–50 deal by the Museum of Modern Art in New York and Maja Oeri, a MoMA trustee whose Emanuel Hoffmann Foundation is at the Schaulager in Basel, Switzerland.[21]
  • For Beginners (all the combinations of the thumb and fingers) (2010)[22]– video depicting Nauman’s hands enacting all the possible combinations of the four fingers and thumb – 31 positions in all – accompanied by his verbal enumeration of each finger combination. Purchased in a 50–50 deal by François Pinault and LACMA.[21]

References and further reading

  1. ^ Art21. Bruce Nauman PBS.
  2. ^ a b Storr, Robert. "Bruce Nauman." May 2009, Modern Painters.
  3. ^ Bruce Nauman. Dream Passage, 28 May – 10 October 2010 Hamburger Bahnhof, Berlin.
  4. ^ Bruce Nauman, Changing Light Corridor with Rooms (1971) Tate Collection.
  5. ^ a b "Kunstmuseum". Retrieved 2012=03-20. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help) Cite error: The named reference "Kunstmuseum" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
  6. ^ a b "Guggenheim". Retrieved 2012=03-20. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help) Cite error: The named reference "Guggenheim" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
  7. ^ a b c "Tate". Retrieved 2012=03-20. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help) Cite error: The named reference "Tate" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
  8. ^ "SMOCA". Retrieved 2012=03-20. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help)
  9. ^ "Liverpool".
  10. ^ "MAM". Retrieved 2012=03-20. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help)
  11. ^ "BAM/PFA". Retrieved 2012=03-20. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help)
  12. ^ "Hamburger". Retrieved 2012=03-20. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help)
  13. ^ Bruce Nauman Guggenheim Collection.
  14. ^ "MoMa". Retrieved 2012=03-20. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help)
  15. ^ "Hirshhorn". Retrieved 2012=03-20. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help)
  16. ^ Art FACTS
  17. ^ "Peace". Retrieved 2012=03-20. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help)
  18. ^ Auction Result: Bruce Nauman's Henry Moore bound to fail, back view
  19. ^ Bruce Nauman's Airborne Ambitions LA Times, August 6, 2009
  20. ^ "MoMa". Retrieved 2012=03-20. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help)
  21. ^ a b Carol Vogel (July 7, 2011), 2 Continents, 1 Work and 31 Hand Positions New York Times.
  22. ^ "LACMA". Retrieved 2012=03-20. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help)
  • Ketner II, Joseph (2006). Elusive Signs – Bruce Nauman Works with Light. The MIT Press. ISBN 0-944110-83-5.
  • Dexter, Emma (2005). Raw Materials. Tate. ISBN 1-85437-559-8. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
  • Janet Kraynak, ed. (2003). Please Pay Attention Please: Bruce Nauman's Words: Writings and Interviews. The MIT Press. ISBN 0-262-64060-0.
  • Robert C. Morgan ed. "Bruce Nauman", Johns Hopkins University Press, 2002
  • Template:Fr Bruno Eble, "Le miroir sans reflet. Considérations sur Bruce Nauman", Paris, L'Harmattan, 2001. ISBN 2-7475-0953-2

General and biographical

Works by Bruce Nauman

Exhibitions

Review and criticism

Template:Persondata

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