Bruce Nauman began to study Mathematics and Physics but soon switched to Art and Philosophy at the University of California, where he was greatly influenced by Irish author Samuel Beckett and Austrian philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein. In the late 1960s, when many artists were questioning the meaning of art and thinking about the way in which it was produced and consumed and the modern limits between the various fields, Nauman asked himself what made an object artistic and different from others. He came to the conclusion that art is what an artist does in his studio, which makes it more an activity and a process than a product.
He was one of the pioneers of performance videos, which he produced using a still camera in his studio. He investigated the limits of his body and its links with space and time without losing sight of the purpose of the recording: subsequent screening for viewers.
This played an increasingly central role in his output in the 1970s when he shifted is exploration from his studio to settings that he built specifically; he also shifted from his body to that of the viewer, whom he turned into a user. Nauman designed tunnels or corridors starting from Gestalt readings, which sought to unsettle viewers, make them aware of themselves and get them to control problematic situations. In the 1980s he shifted his role as a performer to the figure of a mime, a clown or another actor, while maintaining his interest in generating spaces, video and sculpture. He also introduced neon as a new basic element.
Bruce Nauman has held retrospective exhibitions at Los Angeles County Museum (Los Angeles, USA, 1972); the Whitney Museum of American Art (New York, 1973); the Museo Reina Sofía (Madrid, 1993); the Walker Art Center (Minneapolis, USA, 1994); the Museum of Contemporary Art (Los Angeles, USA, 1994); the Hirshhorn Museum Sculpture Garden (Washington D. C., 1994); the Museum of Modern Art (New York, 1995); the Dia Center for the Arts (Beacon, New York, 2002); the Museum für Gegenwartskunst de Basel (Basel, Switzerland, 2002); the Tate Modern Turbine Hall (London, 2005); the Hamburger Bahnhof (Berlin, 2010); the Art Gallery (Ontario, USA, 2014); and the Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain (Paris, 2015). His work has been shown at numerous biennials, including those of the Whitney Museum (1977, 1985, 1987, 1991, 1997) and Venice (1978, 1980, 1999, 2005, 2007, 2009). In 2014 he received the Frederick Kiesler Prize.
Bruce Nauman began to study Mathematics and Physics but soon switched to Art and Philosophy at the University of California, where he was greatly influenced by Irish author Samuel Beckett and Austrian philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein. In the late 1960s, when many artists were questioning the meaning of art and thinking about the way in which it was produced and consumed and the modern limits between the various fields, Nauman asked himself what made an object artistic and different from others. He came to the conclusion that art is what an artist does in his studio, which makes it more an activity and a process than a product.
He was one of the pioneers of performance videos, which he produced using a still camera in his studio. He investigated the limits of his body and its links with space and time without losing sight of the purpose of the recording: subsequent screening for viewers.
This played an increasingly central role in his output in the 1970s when he shifted is exploration from his studio to settings that he built specifically; he also shifted from his body to that of the viewer, whom he turned into a user. Nauman designed tunnels or corridors starting from Gestalt readings, which sought to unsettle viewers, make them aware of themselves and get them to control problematic situations. In the 1980s he shifted his role as a performer to the figure of a mime, a clown or another actor, while maintaining his interest in generating spaces, video and sculpture. He also introduced neon as a new basic element.
Bruce Nauman has held retrospective exhibitions at Los Angeles County Museum (Los Angeles, USA, 1972); the Whitney Museum of American Art (New York, 1973); the Museo Reina Sofía (Madrid, 1993); the Walker Art Center (Minneapolis, USA, 1994); the Museum of Contemporary Art (Los Angeles, USA, 1994); the Hirshhorn Museum Sculpture Garden (Washington D. C., 1994); the Museum of Modern Art (New York, 1995); the Dia Center for the Arts (Beacon, New York, 2002); the Museum für Gegenwartskunst de Basel (Basel, Switzerland, 2002); the Tate Modern Turbine Hall (London, 2005); the Hamburger Bahnhof (Berlin, 2010); the Art Gallery (Ontario, USA, 2014); and the Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain (Paris, 2015). His work has been shown at numerous biennials, including those of the Whitney Museum (1977, 1985, 1987, 1991, 1997) and Venice (1978, 1980, 1999, 2005, 2007, 2009). In 2014 he received the Frederick Kiesler Prize.