Bruce nauman

BRUCE NAUMANBy Rose Occhino

LIFE • Born in 1941 in Fort Wayne, Indiana• Father’s work as an engineer for

General Electric meant that the family moved regularly

• He studied mathematics and physics at the University of Wisconsin–Madison (1960–64)

• 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

• In 1989, he established a home and studio in Galisteo, New Mexico, where he continues to work and live along with his wife, the painter Susan Rothenberg.

Human/Need/Desire, 1983

WORK• “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.”

• Set up a studio in a former grocery shop in San Francisco

• 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 behavioral codes

• Much of his work is characterized by an interest in language, often manifesting itself in a playful, mischievous manner

Run from Fear -- Fun from Rear, 1972

MEANINGS• There are however, very serious

concerns at the heart of Nauman's practice

• Fascinated by the nature of communication and language's inherent problems

• The role of the artist as supposed communicator and manipulator of visual symbols

• Concentrates less on the development of a characteristic style and more on the way in which a process can become a work of art

• alternately political, prosaic, spiritual, and crass methods to view life The True Artist Helps the World by Revealing Mystic

Truths, 1967

Fifteen Pairs of Hands, 1996

100 Live and Die, 1984

Carousel, 1988

Perfect Door/Perfect Odor/Perfect Rodo, 1972

SCULPTURE

• Inspired by Nauman’s use of words

• Origami letters • “K” made out clear scotch

tape • Other letters made using

black paper