Bruce Nauman, the creator of Western Washington University’s stadium piece, is an American artist from Indiana with a background in performance art, photography, video, sculpture, and many other mediums. According to the Encyclopedia Britannica Nauman is a major figure in conceptual art. He studied at the University of Wisconsin and University of California, and now lives in Galisteo, New Mexico.

Nauman has been active since the 1960s and has been recognized for his work since the early 1970s. According to art21.org, Nauman after graduating with an MFA in 1966 from UC Davis, he asked himself “What to do?” and concluded that “If I was an artist and I was in the studio, then whatever I was doing in the studio must be art.” Sculpture makes up an important chunk of his body of work, and much of his creation is categorized as post-minimalism. In 2009, Nauman was awarded the Golden Lion by the Venice Biennale.

Some of Nauman’s most famous pieces are The True Artist Helps the World by Revealing Mystic Truths (1967), a neon based sign showing the title message, South American Triangle (1981), a political piece focused on torture, One Hundred Live and Die (1984), another neon sign relating issues of life and death, and Mapping the Studio (2001), a video focused on the movement in his studio.

Nauman’s stadium piece was installed in 1998-1999 on what is now known as the Communications lawn in front of the Communications Facility, which wasn’t built until 2004. Student discussion around the piece has supported the idea that it is representative of the college experience and time spent in school.

There was little information on his Stadium Piece, but according to an archived article on the Seattle PI, his stadium piece is focused on the fanfare of sports and “that steep up and down to which the fans subject themselves in order to see the games.” During the dedication ceremony for the piece, Western’s football team walked along the piece and shouted, “Go Bruce!” Highlighting a distinct difference on campus in 1999 compared to 2017. Western no longer has a football team, and although there are plenty of other sports teams for fans to watch and support, generally football is the most popular in America.

In that era, sports were booming. As they became more popularly televised and covered, more and more people valued them. The late 90s and early 2000s were a time of rapid growth of commercialization of sports and entertainment in a world now revolving around the internet.

In Themes of Contemporary Art, Visual Art after 1980 by Jean Robertson and Craig McDaniel, Nauman is recognized for his work with video alongside Tacita Dean. “the length and slowness of their videos make views exceptionally aware of the passage of time, both the time portrayed in the videos and the time needed to watch them.” Robertson and McDaniel also recognize Nauman’s work for his mixing of “media, genres, disciplines, and contexts.”

Recently, Nauman has returned to to video and sound work, after taking a break from producing anything following his Golden Lion in 2009. In September 2016 he released new work, titled Contrapposto Studies. The New York Times wrote about the work and interviewed Nauman. He has gone back to filming his own body, and dressing similarly to ways he had decades ago for his previous work. Nauman has not previously revisited his work before this.

Made By:

Drew Stuart – Website admin

Trevor Dickie – Researcher & writer

and Justin Murray – Drone footage

 

Sources:

Bruce Nauman – Gagosian. N.p., n.d. Web. 25 Apr. 2017.

“Bruce Nauman.” Art21. N.p., n.d. Web. 25 Apr. 2017.

“Bruce Nauman Biography, Art, and Analysis of Works.” The Art Story. N.p., n.d. Web. 25 Apr. 2017.

Kennedy, Randy. “Bruce Nauman, Art Provocateur, Returns. Are You Ready?” The New York Times. The New York Times, 08 Sept. 2016. Web. 25 Apr. 2017.

Regina_hackett on March 19, 2007 at 5:31 PM. “Bruce Nauman and the Art of Football.” Seattle Arts News and Reviews. N.p., 19 Mar. 2007. Web. 25 Apr. 2017.

Robertson, Jean, and Craig McDaniel. Themes of Contemporary Art Visual Art after 1980. New York: Oxford UP, 2010. Print.

Yood, James W. “Bruce Nauman.” Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., 14 July 2009. Web. 25 Apr. 2017.