Bruce Nauman
Born – Fort Wayne, Indiana, USA 1941
Bruce Nauman read mathematics and physics before studying art at the University of Wisconsin, graduating in 1964. He continued his art training at the University of California. Although he began as a painter, after 1965 he rejected the medium to work in film, performance and sculpture. He is regarded as a leading Post-Minimalist artist, concerned more with the activity of production than with the finished object. His first solo exhibition in New York, in 1968, revealed his preoccupation with the body, shown in what is typically associated with Nauman – neon sculpture. During the 1970s, these concerns were extended beyond the body and into more conceptual realism of behavioural and sociological issues. In the mid-1980s his thematic focus was on notions of power and sex. The “animated” neon sculptures take on a Pop-inspired, satirical edge. Nauman’s inventiveness made him one of the most influential American artists of the 1970s and 1980s. Good Boy, Bad Boy is a video-piece of two actors reciting the same string of statements, unsynchronized. The force of each respective statement depends upon the gender and the tone of voice of the actor. It epitomizes Nauman’s interest in the manipulation.
Masterpieces:
- Corridor with Mirror and White Lights
- Human Nature/Know Doesn’t Know
Text: The A-Z of Art, Nicola Hodge and Libby Anson.
Books About bruce nauman
Please Pay Attention Please: Bruce Nauman's Words: Writings and Interviews (Writing Art)
Bruce Nauman
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A Rose Has No Teeth: Bruce Nauman in the 1960s
Constance M. Lewallen
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Bruce Nauman 25 Years
Leo Castelli
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