Biography of Bruce Nauman
Widely recognized as one of the most significant artists working today, Nauman is regularly at the top of the auction house top sellers list. His highly sought after works bristle with insight and originality, and question the role of the artist as a communicator and exploiter of visual symbols. Drawing his inspiration from the activities and the speech of everyday life, Nauman's work consists of sculpture, performance, video, and installation.
Bruce Nauman frequently uses language in his practice, examining its inherent fallacies as a tool for communication through the use of irony and humor. Such studies also bring to the fore questions of human remoteness and alienation. What makes him stand out from his contemporaries is his focus on how the process becomes a work of art, as opposed to developing any single personal style. Although his work is playful in nature, Nauman's art is always a serious undertaking, requiring intense research often outside the spotlight of the art world.
Born in Indiana, America in 1941, Bruce Nauman had a peripatetic childhood due to his father's job working as an engineer for General Electric. After finishing an art degree he became an assistant for the artist Wayne Thiebaud and taught at various colleges on the West Coast of America. Nauman has had many solo exhibitions in some of the biggest art institutions in the world, including Tate Modern in 2004 and Hamburger Bahnhof in Berlin in 2010. At the 2009 Venice Biennale he had the honor of representing the United States for which he won the prestigious Golden Lion.
