Critical Writing Index

Nauman Interview

by Willoughby Sharp

Arts Magazine, Mar. 1970, v. 44, no. 5, pp. 22-27

An interview with artists Bruce Nauman. He discusses an upcoming show at the Nicholas Wilder Gallery in Los Angeles, where he has planned a piece composed of long corridors with television cameras and monitors, meant to limit the audience's ability to see themselves on the monitors. He speaks about his relation to the California art scene, and downplays the influence of the Funk Art movement on his work. The interviewer encourages him to look back on his development as an artist, to criticize his early work and draw theoretical threads between his past and current work. Nauman describes the transformation of his work over his career, as it moves away from material manipulations and wordplay to meditations on body as material and on process, and as he begins to utilize film, video, and sound technology. He finally talks about his philosophical and artistic influences, and considers his art with regard to notions of perversion, therapy, and privacy.

ITEM 1970.005 – available for viewing in the Research Centre

Videos, Artworks and Artists Cited

Holograms - Making Faces – Bruce Nauman

Collection of Various Flexible Materials Separated by Layers of Grease with Holes the Size of My Waist and Wrists – Bruce Nauman

Lead Tree Plaque – Bruce Nauman

From Hand to Mouth – Bruce Nauman

Six Sound Problems – Bruce Nauman

Performance Area – Bruce Nauman

Henry Moore Bound to Fail (back view) – Bruce Nauman

Untitled (1965) – Bruce Nauman

Flour Arrangement – Bruce Nauman

Dark – Bruce Nauman

Portrait of the Artist as a Fountain – Bruce Nauman

My Name As Though It Were Written On The Surface Of The Moon – Bruce Nauman

Fishing for Asian Carp – Bruce Nauman

Bouncing Balls – Bruce Nauman

Black Balls – Bruce Nauman

Making a Face – Bruce Nauman

Steel Channel – Bruce Nauman

Shelf Sinking – Bruce Nauman