Bruce Nauman (born December 6, 1941, in Fort Wayne, Indiana) is a contemporary American artist. His pluralistic practice spans a broad range of media including sculpture, photography, neon, video, drawing and performance. He is widely acknowledged as one of the most important living artists.

Life and Work

He studied mathematics and physics at the University of Wisconsin, and art with William T. Wiley and Robert Arneson at the University of California in Davis. He worked as an assistant to Wayne Thiebaud and in 1966 he became a teacher at the San Francisco Art Institute. In 1968 he met the singer and perfomance artist Meredith Monk and signed with the dealer Leo Castelli. In the 1980s he moved to New Mexico. Much of his work is characterised by an interest in language which often manifests itself in a playful, mischievous manner. For example, the neon Run From Fear- Fun From Rear, or the photograph Bound To Fail which literalises the title phrase and shows the artist's arms tied behind his back. There are however, very serious concerns at the heart of the work. Nauman seems to be interested in the nature of communication and the inherent problems of language, as well as the role of the artist as supposed communicator and manipulator of visual language. In 1999 he received the Golden Lion of the Venice Biennale. In 2004 he created his work Raw Materials at Tate Modern.

Nauman cites Samuel Beckett, Ludwig Wittgenstein, John Cage, Philip Glass, La Monte Young and Meredith Monk as major influences on his work.

Works

Some of his better-known works include:

• Clown Torture - in separate stacked video screens, a clown screaming "No" repeatedly, a clown telling an annoying child's joke, a clown balancing goldfish bowls, and a clown sitting on a public toilet.
• Vices and Virtues (1988) - 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 - a spiraling neon sign with this slogan.
• Setting a Good Corner - 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.

References and further reading

• Janet Kraynak (Editor), Please Pay Attention Please: Bruce Nauman's Words : Writings and Interviews, MIT Press, 2003 and 2005 (Paperback edition). ISBN 0262640600
• Emma Dexter, Bruce Nauman. Raw Materials, Tate, 2005. ISBN 1854375598

External links

• About Bruce Nauman, PBS
• Setting a Good Corner, an interview, PBS
• Bruce Nauman in artfacts
• http://www.speronewestwater.com/cgi-bin/iowa/artists/record.html?record=1

Works by Bruce Nauman

• Bruce Nauman in the Tate Collection
• Inside Installations: Mapping the Studio II Conservation project and e-learning module at Tate Online

Exhibitions

• Bruce Nauman: Make Me Think Me Exhibition at Tate Liverpool, UK, Summer 2006. Online resources include video footage of neons.
• Unilever Series: Bruce Nauman Raw Materials sound installation at Tate Modern, London, UK, 2004

Review and criticism

• Can everyone hear at the back?, by Rose Jennings, The Observer, October 10, 2004 - Martin Creed, Barbara Kruger, Jenny Holzer, John Baldessari and others on Bruce Nauman
• Inside the mind of Bruce Nauman, by Adrian Searle, The Guardian, October 12, 2004
• Nauman's rehashed sounds reverberate around the Tate's emptiness, by Charlotte Higgins, The Guardian, October 12, 2004
• From a whisper to a scream, by Laura Cumming, The Observer, October 17, 2004
• Sound of surprise, with no risk of playing to the gallery, by Charlotte Simmons, The Guardian, October 9, 2004
• Raw Materials Sound installation by Bruce Nauman at Tate Modern

1941 births | Living people | Conceptual artists | Contemporary artists | Video artists | Members of The American Academy of Arts and Letters | Video artists

Bruce Nauman | Bruce Nauman | Bruce Nauman | ブルース・ナウマン | Bruce Nauman | Bruce Nauman