Bruce Nauman : A Contemporary

This title presents the artist as contemporary in a double sense. First, the works of Nauman's 50-plus-year career are placed in the context of contemporary positions and discourses. Second, it analyses the extent to which Nauman's themes, media and forms have forged connections to the present, remaining of enduring importance for artists of subsequent generations. The authors seek to counter the tendency to cast Bruce Nauman as an outstanding, solitary figure of postmodernism by putting the artist's work back in context. Nauman's early works were originally discussed in the context of contemporary practices and discourses, such as minimal music, postmodern dance, conceptual art, Gestalt therapy or the philosophy of language. But soon Nauman's reputation came to precede him, and his more recent work has largely been appraised independently of any artistic, social, historical or theoretical context.