Bruce Nauman Quotes

Quotes about:

• What is it that an artist does when he is left alone in his studio? My conclusion was that if I was an artist and I was in the studio, then everything I was doing in the studio should be art . . . . From that point on, art became more of an activity and less of a product.

  Bruce Nauman

  Art, Doe, Should

  51 Copy quote

• If you really want to do it, you do it. There are no excuses.

  Bruce Nauman

  Excuse You, Want, No Excuses

  62 Copy quote

• My work is basically an outgrowth of the anger I feel about the human condition. The aspects of it that make me angry are our capacity for cruelty and the ability people have to ignore situations they don't like.

  Bruce Nauman

  People, Capacity, Aspect

  Bruce Nauman, Christine van Assche, Cristina Ricupero, Hayward Gallery (1998). “Bruce Nauman”

  44 Copy quote

• The true artist helps the world by revealing mystic truths.

  Bruce Nauman

  Artist, World, Helping

  Bruce Nauman, Christine van Assche, Cristina Ricupero, Hayward Gallery (1998). “Bruce Nauman”

  33 Copy quote

• A good teacher is like a good artist. They go right to the most difficult part of whatever's going on.

  Bruce Nauman

  Teacher, Artist, Difficult

  54 Copy quote

• If I was an artist, and I was in the studio, then whatever I was doing in the studio must be art.

  Bruce Nauman

  Art, Artist, Studios

  Bruce Nauman, Janet Kraynak (2005). “Please Pay Attention Please: Bruce Nauman's Words : Writings and Interviews”, p.194, MIT Press

  33 Copy quote

• I want to be in the studio. I want to be doing something. You just do whatever is at hand, and you don't even worry about whether it's going to be interesting or not interesting to anybody else-or even yourself. You just have to make something.

  Bruce Nauman

  Hands, Interesting, Worry

  39 Copy quote

• When I was in art school, I thought art was something I would learn how to do, and then I would just do it. At a certain point I realized that it wasn't going to work like that. Basically, I would have to start over every day and figure out what art was going to be.

  Bruce Nauman

  Art, School, Figures

  33 Copy quote

• Pete and Repeat were sitting on a wall. Pete fell off. Who was left? Repeat.

  Bruce Nauman

  Wall, Sitting, Repeats

  6 Copy quote

• In art, the only one who really knows whether what you've done is honest is the artist.

  Bruce Nauman

  Art, Integrity, Done

  32 Copy quote

• It's interesting when you make things or do things that open up the possibilities for making more things, or different kinds of things.

  Bruce Nauman

  Interesting, Different, Kind

  15 Copy quote

• Learn to recognise when you need to know something.

  Bruce Nauman

  Needs, Recognise, Knows

  18 Copy quote

• What I am really concerned about is what art is supposed to be - and can become.

  Bruce Nauman

  Art, Art Is, Concerned

  Bruce Nauman, Janet Kraynak (2005). “Please Pay Attention Please: Bruce Nauman's Words : Writings and Interviews”, p.180, MIT Press

  26 Copy quote

• I thought I might have to give up art, but I couldn't think of anything else to do.

  Bruce Nauman

  Art, Giving Up, Thinking

  Source: www.interviewmagazine.com

  7 Copy quote

• If you choose the wrong questions and you proceed, you still get a result, but it's not interesting.

  Bruce Nauman

  Interesting, Results, Stills

  17 Copy quote

• I like to use my hands and make things... It might seem pretty stupid or pointless but that doesn't matter... some of the most interesting work is the stuff that starts like that - out of a raw need for activity.

  Bruce Nauman

  Stupid, Hands, Interesting

  11 Copy quote

• I'm surprised when the work appears beautiful, and very pleased. And I think work can be very good and very successful without being able to call it beautiful, although I'm not clear about that. The work is good when it has a certain completeness; and when it's got a certain completeness, then it's beautiful.

  Bruce Nauman

  Beautiful, Successful, Thinking

  "Stairways". Art21 Interview, art21.org. September, 2001.

  17 Copy quote

• Did you stop because it was good enough, or could have done more - but then maybe ruined it too? Sometimes you finish because you've gone too far.

  Bruce Nauman

  Gone, Done, Sometimes

  26 Copy quote

• My videos always involve some idea of a human being in a unusual situation-and what happens.

  Bruce Nauman

  Ideas, Video, Unusual

  17 Copy quote

• I'll talk. You'll listen.

  Bruce Nauman

  Heart, Listen To Your Heart

  Bruce Nauman, Emma Dexter, Tate Modern (Gallery) (2004). “Bruce Nauman: raw materials”, Tate Gallery Pubn

  13 Copy quote

• In the studio, I don't do a lot of work that requires repetitive activity. I spend a lot of time looking and thinking and then try to find the most efficient way to get what I want, whether it's making a drawing or a sculpture, or casting plaster or whatever.

  Bruce Nauman

  Thinking, Drawing, Trying

  "'Setting a Good Corner'". Art21 Interview, art21.org. September 2001.

  19 Copy quote

• Generalised anger and frustration is something that gets you in the studio, and gets you to work - though it's not necessarily evident in anything that's finished.

  Bruce Nauman

  Anger, Frustration, Studios

  11 Copy quote

• And I don't have any specific steps to take because I don't start the same way every time. But there is a knowing when it's enough and you can leave it alone.

  Bruce Nauman

  Knowing, Leave Me Alone, Way

  "Setting a Good Corner". The ART21 Interview, art21.org. September 2001.

  13 Copy quote

• I don't like to think about being an influence. It's embarrassing.

  Bruce Nauman

  Thinking, Influence, Embarrassing

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• And sometimes the question that you pose or the project that you start yourself turns into something else, you know, but at least it gets you started.

  Bruce Nauman

  Sometimes, Projects, Turns

  "'Setting a Good Corner'". "Art in the Twenty-First Century", art21.org. 2001.

  10 Copy quote

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