Date: Fri 08-Aug-1997

Publication: Bee

Author: SHANNO

Quick Words:

Nauman-Aldrich-art-graphic

Full Text:

(rev Bruce Nauman retrospective at Aldrich Museum, 8/8/97)

Aldrich Award Winner Bruce Nauman, In Retrospect

(with cuts, catalogue cover)

BY SHANNON HICKS

RIDGEFIELD - Through the end of August, The Aldrich Museum of Contemporary Art

is exhibiting the retrospective show "Bruce Nauman: 1985-1996, Drawings,

Prints, and Related Works."

Mr Nauman was selected two years ago to be the 1995 recipient of The Larry

Aldrich Foundation Award. The honor carries not only one of the largest cash

prizes given an individual artist by any museum in the country, but also the

privilege of a solo show at the museum of Mr Aldrich's creation.

The Aldrich is the first showing in a number of years of Mr Nauman's graphic

work. It is additionally the first survey of the artist's works on paper from

the past decade.

It was Jill Snyder, the former Aldrich director and the curator of the Nauman

show, who proposed the idea of including related pieces.

"Because Nauman's works on paper often serve as conceptual blueprints for his

multi-media work, I proposed also to include related sculptural and

installation pieces," Ms Snyder wrote in her acknowledgements for the

exhibition's catalogue.

"Drawings, Prints and Related Works" has taken over the entire second and

third floors of the museum. The exhibition has been divided into five distinct

themes, all of which are ideas expressed and returned to repeatedly during the

course of the artist's career. Divided into "Hands and Heads," "Words,"

"Neons," "Animals" and "Clowns," the exhibition encompasses a wide range of

media.

Born and raised in the Midwest (Fort Wayne, Ind.), Bruce Nauman began his

artistic career over 30 years ago. Now 55 years old and living in New Mexico

with his wife, Mr Nauman is an artist whose work is shown consistently

worldwide.

Mr Nauman, says Aldrich assistant director Katherine Gass, has been most

influenced by the Dada artist Man Ray.

"Bruce Nauman liked that Man Ray did not have one consistent style," Ms Gass

said during a private tour of the retrospective.

"Anything done in a studio is art, believes Nauman. Even reaching for a

pencil, any movement of the body, for whatever reason," she continued. Indeed,

Mr Nauman told an interviewer in 1986 that "art is what an artist does, just

sitting around in the studio."

"Bruce Nauman: 1985-1996" contains over 50 pieces of work, with both art that

has been completed and pieces of work that served as the foundation for Mr

Nauman for future pieces.

In the "Words" section of the show, the first section visitors will encounter

depending on which direction they turn at the top of the first flight of

stairs, the six studies for a series of carved granite stones called "Elliot's

Stones" hang along two walls. The graphites on paper were loaned for the show

from the collection of the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago. A few of the

works in the show came out of the artist's own collection; others have been

borrowed from museums and other private sources.

While the 1989 "Stones" studies hang on one wall, the stones themselves, done

the same year, have been arranged on a small intra-gallery space on the

museum's second floor.

"Elliot's Stones" was commissioned by the late art collector George S. Elliot.

Each granite piece is 3‹ by 25Ö by 39× inches. Arranged in a cruciform, the

stones force the viewer to turn in a circle in order to read all the stones -

"above yourself," "beneath yourself," "before yourself," "after yourself,"

"behind yourself" and "beside yourself."

The stones are meant to demonstrate Nauman's use of the body as an art-making

material.

Noisy Clowns

As mentioned earlier, the exhibition's themes are not new to the artist's

palette. However, the clown segment features two works on video, which at the

time they were created was a return to the medium by Mr Nauman for the first

time in nearly two decades. The video installations themselves are a study in

opposites, with "Coffee Spilled" (1993) and "Balloon Dog" (1993) set up in one

small room, and "Clown Torture ( I'm Sorry and No, No, No )" (1987) in

another.

In the first video installation, Mr Nauman chose to slow the film down to

almost no movement, emphasizing sounds - water dripping or the squeaking of a

balloon. In the second piece, the clown's every movement is at regular speed,

and his rantings are not just spoken, but screamed. With feet stomping to

emphasize his point.

For museum visitors, the videos are amusing, captivating, and certainly hard

to miss. Reaction to the videos - as with all of Mr Nauman's art - is strong.

Visitors either love it or they despise it.

One recent private tour of the Nauman exhibit saw both ends of the spectrum

personified; some visitors returned to favorite portions of the exhibition

once the formal tour was completed, while others could not wait to leave the

museum.

One visitor even called the works "derogatory," grumbling "Do not call this

art. I would not want to own this!"

Katherine Gass, the museum's assistant director, called the clowns work "a

very psychological piece." The Aldrich show contains two of the four pieces

that complete "Clown Torture."

Even without the second two clown videos, "Clown Torture" is a disruptive

piece of work. What is interesting is the museum's choice to situate the

clowns so close to the "Words" section.

Each video is a short film, looped to repeat itself. None of the segments last

for more than 90 seconds, so the repetition on top of the constant noise is

not something to be taken in large doses. The former nearly drove museum

guards to strike when playing over and over at the Walker Art Center in

Minneapolis three years ago, the latter is meant to be studied in the more

traditional hush of a museum.

Self-Definition

The overall focus of the show is on Mr Nauman's continued interest in the body

and self-definition. This is evident no matter where a piece is set. Mr Nauman

seems very interested in capturing the language of gesture and activity.

In the two works "Double Poke in the Eye I" and "Double Poke in the Eye II,"

pieces in the "Neon" section of the exhibition, the title describes exactly

what the viewer is seeing: two head forms with index fingers poking into each

other's eyes. The first work is the artist's watercolor and pencil on paper

outline for the resulting second piece.

"Simplicity is what the artist is presenting, with a more complicated message

being delivered," Ms Gass said.

The "Double Poke in the Eye" pieces, placed side by side, reiterate the

curator's idea of being able to look at a piece both in its finished form and

in its creative stage. "Double Poke in the Eye II" - the finished form of the

piece - is the only piece in the show that came straight from the artist's

collection.

Adults may wish to preview the exhibition, as some elements are going to be

considered unsuitable for children. Many works are highly sexual in nature,

others are graphic or disturbing in their presentation.

In the "Animals" section, "Untitled (Three Small Animals)" is an aluminum

sculpture that is the result of "Untitled," a suite of seven hard-ground

etchings printed in black. While the etchings appear as innocent as a network

television cartoon cel, the resulting piece of the animals fused together,

said Ms Gass, "rides a fine line of irony and cruelty."

Other pieces are not only unsuitable because of their sexual or disturbing

nature, but also in the weird sense of humor the artist displays. This is a

grown man, after all, who has named two of his watercolor and pencil on paper

pieces "Eating Boogers" and "Eating Boogers II."

"Bruce Nauman: 1985-1996, Drawings, Prints and Related Works" is accompanied

by an 84-page catalogue. Essays by Ms Snyder and New York-based independent

curator and author Ingrid Schaffner are included, along with color plates of a

number of the works in the exhibition and a full listing of all works in the

show.

A reading room at the museum offers visitors a large number of related books,

catalogues and articles on the artist. The museum also has a limited edition

of 50 two-color screenprints, with embossing, of the "Partial Truth" stone

from the "Elliot's Stones" piece. It was printed by Gemini G.E.L. specifically

for the occasion of the exhibition.

The Aldrich Award is far from Mr Nauman's first large prize. Four years ago he

was presented with the $100,000 Wolf Prize for sculpture, an annual honor

endowed in Israel. In 1994 he was named winner of The Wexner Prize, another

prestigious annual honor, this one from the Wexner Center For The Visual Arts

and Fine Arts Library in Columbus, Ohio.

In 1994, Newsweek called Nauman "perhaps the most influential American in the

international art world today."

After its Ridgefield showing, "Bruce Nauman" will travel to The Cleveland

Center for Contemporary Art, where Ms Snyder is now director. It will be on

view in Cleveland early next year.