Bruce Nauman Exhibit Opens at the Ujazdowski Castle in Warsaw

15 December 2009

Bruce Nauman, Mapping the Studio II (Fat Chance John Cage) / video, 5 hours 45 minutes / dimensions variable

An exhibition of works created by Bruce Nauman, one of the most distinguished American contemporary artists, opened on December 14, 2009 at the Center for Contemporary Art at Ujazdowski Castle in Warsaw.  The exhibit includes a selection of sculptures, prints, videos, and installations from several European and American collections.  The works, which cover three decades of Bruce Nauman’s career, are representative of the artist’s reflection on the human condition.  Bruce Nauman represented the United States at the 2009 Venice Biennale, where the U.S. won the prestigious “Golden Lion for the Best National Participation at the 53rd International Art Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia” for the Bruce Nauman: Topological Gardens installation.  According to a statement from the Biennale, the presentation was selected “in recognition of the sustained energy and precision of Bruce Nauman’s art. From iconic embodiments of human pain and fragility to pithy jabs at our frailties, his oeuvre reveals the magic of meaning as it emerges through relentless repetition of language and form.”

Bruce Nauman’s art spans a broad range of media including sculpture, photography, neon, video, drawing, printmaking, and performance.  Nauman studied mathematics and physics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and art with William T. Wiley and Robert Arneson at the University of California, Davis.  He worked as an assistant to Wayne Thiebaud, and in 1966 he became a teacher at the San Francisco Art Institute. Much of his work is characterized by an interest in language, often manifesting itself in a playful, mischievous manner. There are however, very serious concerns at the heart of Nauman's practice.  He seems to be fascinated by the nature of communication and language's inherent problems, as well as the role of the artist as supposed communicator and manipulator of visual symbols.