- Born:
- December 6, 1941, Fort Wayne, Indiana, U.S. (age 84)
Bruce Nauman
-
Who is Bruce Nauman?
Bruce Nauman (born in Fort Wayne, Indiana, on December 6, 1941) is an American artist prominent in conceptual art, known for his diverse mediums. He studied at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, and the University of California, Davis, joining California's art scene in the late 1960s.
Nauman's works often test art as a stable form of communication, using irony as seen in The True Artist Helps the World by Revealing Mystic Truths (1967). His art includes photography, performance art, neon tubing, and sculptures. Nauman received a Golden Lion at the 48th Venice Biennale (1999) and a Praemium Imperiale award in 2004.
1 Britannica SourceCreated from Britannica articles using AI. AI can make mistakes, so verify using Britannica articles. -
What kind of art does Bruce Nauman make?
Bruce Nauman is an American conceptual artist who works in a broad range of media. His diverse works include photography, performance art, neon tubing, drawings, videos, films, prints, installations, and sculptures.
Nauman's early work includes Self Portrait as a Fountain, and his neon installations often feature ironic phrases, such as The True Artist Helps the World by Revealing Mystic Truths. He has also created installations that invite observers to experience space, sometimes incorporating mirrors, cameras, or colored fluorescent light, such as Green Light Corridor. Additionally, Nauman uses casts of taxidermy forms to create stacked assemblages or mobiles of animals.
1 Britannica SourceCreated from Britannica articles using AI. AI can make mistakes, so verify using Britannica articles. -
What materials or media does Bruce Nauman use in his work?
Bruce Nauman is an American artist known for his diverse work in conceptual art. He uses a broad range of media, including photography, performance art, neon tubing, drawings, videos, films, prints, installations, and sculptures.
Nauman's early videos often featured himself performing mundane tasks in his studio. He also used neon to create large wall installations. Additionally, he developed an interest in using casts of taxidermy forms to create stacked assemblages and mobiles of animals.
2 Britannica SourcesCreated from Britannica articles using AI. AI can make mistakes, so verify using Britannica articles. -
What are some common themes in Bruce Nauman's art?
Bruce Nauman, an American artist born in 1941, is renowned for his conceptual art across diverse mediums.
Common themes in Nauman's art include:
* Communication and irony Nauman questions art as a stable form of communication, often using irony.
* Body and performance art His works feature simple, repetitive bodily movements, recorded on film or video.
* Use of varied materials Nauman uses photography, performance art, neon tubing, drawings, videos, films, prints, installations, and sculptures.
* Exploration of language Nauman utilizes neon with words to highlight language's inevitability and vacancy.
* Intersection of civilization and the wild He uses taxidermy casts to evoke an uneasy relationship between these concepts.2 Britannica SourcesCreated from Britannica articles using AI. AI can make mistakes, so verify using Britannica articles. -
Why is Bruce Nauman considered an important modern artist?
Bruce Nauman is a significant modern artist due to his diverse work and exploration of communication through various mediums. His art challenges conventional ideas, often with irony, as seen in The True Artist Helps the World by Revealing Mystic Truths.
Nauman's use of his studio space and the human body is central to his art. His pieces include neon installations, sculptures, videos, and performance art. His work has been showcased in retrospectives at the Museum of Modern Art and Tate Modern. He received a Golden Lion at the Venice Biennale in 1999 and a Praemium Imperiale in 2004.
1 Britannica SourceCreated from Britannica articles using AI. AI can make mistakes, so verify using Britannica articles. -
Can you describe a famous artwork by Bruce Nauman and explain its meaning?
The True Artist Helps the World by Revealing Mystic Truths (1967) is a well-known neon artwork by Bruce Nauman. The piece features those words in a neon spiral, revealing irony, as the text’s optimism is undermined by the implications of the florid neon. Nauman's use of neon with words explores the vacancy of language.
1 Britannica SourceCreated from Britannica articles using AI. AI can make mistakes, so verify using Britannica articles.
Bruce Nauman (born December 6, 1941, Fort Wayne, Indiana, U.S.) is an American artist whose work in a broad range of mediums made him a major figure in conceptual art.
Nauman was educated at the University of Wisconsin, Madison (B.A., 1964), and the University of California, Davis (M.F.A., 1966), and became part of the burgeoning California art scene in the late 1960s. His Self Portrait as a Fountain (1966; original photograph destroyed, reissued 1970) showed the artist spouting a stream of water from his mouth. Witty and irreverent, Nauman tested the idea of art as a stable vehicle of communication and the role of the artist as revelatory communicator. The True Artist Helps the World by Revealing Mystic Truths (1967) sets those words in a spiral made of neon, revealing the wistful and subtle irony often encountered in his work, as the text’s optimism and sense of cultural continuity is undermined by the implications of the florid neon. Nauman’s videos often featured the artist in his studio performing various mundane tasks, such as Bouncing Two Balls Between the Floor and Ceiling with Changing Rhythms (1967–68) and Walk with Contrapposto (1968). In the latter he strutted within a narrow corridor he had constructed, exaggerating the contrapposto pose of Classical sculptures. Soon after, he repurposed the hallway into a series of installations that invited observers to experience the space for themselves. Some of the passageways included mirrors, cameras, or coloured fluorescent light (as in Green Light Corridor [1970]).
Nauman’s interests led him to widely diverse materials; beyond photography, performance art, and neon tubing, he also regularly produced drawings, videos, films, prints, installations, and sculptures in a range of mediums. The use of neon with words continued to intrigue him, and large wall installations such as One Hundred Live and Die (1984) impassively play out both the inevitability and the vacancy of language. Nauman also developed an interest in using casts of taxidermy forms to create variously stacked assemblages or mobiles of wild deer, foxes, caribou, and other animals, sometimes dismembered and reassembled, evoking an uneasy intersection of civilization and the wild. Works of this theme include Carousel (Stainless Steel Version) (1988), Untitled (Three Large Animals) (1989), and Leaping Foxes (2018).
While Nauman’s early videos often featured the artist as the actor, beginning in the late 1980s, he stayed behind the camera. In Clown Torture (1987) he filmed an actor in a clown costume in unsettling circumstances, while in Shadow Puppets and Instructed Mime (1990) he featured a voice giving demeaning instructions to a mime. In 2000 Nauman set a camera on the nocturnal creatures that crept into his studio when he was absent (Mapping the Studio 1 [Fat Chance John Cage] [2001]). He returned to videos of himself later in his career, revisiting Walk with Contrapposto as an older man in Contrapposto Studies, i through vii (2015–16). Nauman also explored the possibilities and limitations of new media and the human body while documenting his studio using a 3-D video camera in Nature Morte (2020).
Nauman’s work was shown frequently at the Whitney Biennial, in numerous solo shows, and in several retrospectives, including those organized by the Walker Art Center (1993), Minneapolis, Minnesota; the Museum of Modern Art (2018), New York; and Tate Modern (2020), London. He was also commissioned by Tate Modern to create a work for the museum’s Turbine Hall (Raw Materials [2004]). Nauman was awarded a Golden Lion at the 48th Venice Biennale (1999) and became a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters in 2000. In 2004 he received a Praemium Imperiale award, presented by the Japan Art Association to “artists who have contributed significantly to the development of international arts and culture.” “Bruce Nauman: Topological Gardens,” featuring works from throughout his career, was awarded a Golden Lion at the 2009 Venice Biennale.