Bruce Nauman
Bruce Nauman
Bruce Naumanis an American artist. His practice spans a broad range of media including sculpture, photography, neon, video, drawing, printmaking, and performance. Nauman lives near Galisteo, New Mexico...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionMultimedia Artist
Date of Birth6 December 1941
CountryUnited States of America
thinking drawing trying
In the studio, I don't do a lot of work that requires repetitive activity. I spend a lot of time looking and thinking and then try to find the most efficient way to get what I want, whether it's making a drawing or a sculpture, or casting plaster or whatever.
beautiful successful thinking
I'm surprised when the work appears beautiful, and very pleased. And I think work can be very good and very successful without being able to call it beautiful, although I'm not clear about that. The work is good when it has a certain completeness, and when it's got a certain completeness, then it's beautiful.
motivation stills factors
One of the factors that still keeps me in the studio is that every so often I have to more or less start all over.
interesting asking-the-right-questions you-choose
And then what makes the work interesting is if you choose the right questions.
artist can-do ifs
And the part about being a professional artist is that you can tell and you can do it over again, even if you can't say how you got there exactly.
needs recognise knows
Learn to recognise when you need to know something.
thinking influence embarrassing
I don't like to think about being an influence. It's embarrassing.
stupid hands interesting
I like to use my hands and make things... It might seem pretty stupid or pointless but that doesn't matter... some of the most interesting work is the stuff that starts like that - out of a raw need for activity.
knowing steps way
And I don't have any specific steps to take because I don't start the same way every time. But there is a knowing when it's enough and you can leave it alone.
gone done sometimes
Did you stop because it was good enough, or could have done more - but then maybe ruined it too? Sometimes you finish because you've gone too far.
artist world helping
The true artist helps the world by revealing mystic truths.
people capacity aspect
My work is basically an outgrowth of the anger I feel about the human condition. The aspects of it that make me angry are our capacity for cruelty and the ability people have to ignore situations they don't like.
interesting results stills
If you choose the wrong questions and you proceed, you still get a result, but it's not interesting.
art integrity done
In art, the only one who really knows whether what you've done is honest is the artist.