From creating flashing neon sculptures to employing sound in unprecedented ways, American multimedia artist Bruce Nauman is widely acknowledged to be one of the greatest living artists. For the first time in more than 20 years, the Tate Modern in London will present a survey of Nauman’s diverse practice, which will then travel to the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam and Pirelli HangarBicocca in Milan. Masterworks include video installations “MAPPING THE STUDIO II with color shift, flip, flop & flip/flop (Fat Chance John Cage),” the intense “Clown Torture,” celebrated for its sensory overload, and the Tate Turbine Hall Unilever commission “Raw Materials.”
“Nauman’s ongoing investigations of words voiced or materialised were inspired in part by his fascination with Wittgenstein’s philosophical writings on language and logic,” explains writer Joan Simon in the catalog essay. “Noticing something yet to be tested, Nauman has revisited the same ideas, gestures, images and words, but critically not as replications.” Nauman likes to spell out his thoughts in neon, and nowhere is this more evident than in his most definitive work, “The True Artist Helps the World by Revealing Mystic Truths (Window or Wall Sign).”
“Bruce Nauman” will run from October 7 to February 21, 2021.
