Bruce Nauman Quotes (22 Quotes)


    But if you can find that spot - I suppose it's like running - I used to be a swimmer and swim laps, and you just have to be there with what you're doing.

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

    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.

    And then what makes the work interesting is if you choose the right questions.

    And the part about being a professional artist is that you can tell and you can do it over again, even if you can't say how you got there exactly.


    I gave a certain amount of thought to how I set up the shot and then after that. That's not an uncommon way for artists to proceed.


    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.

    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.

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

    The idea being there so that it became almost like an object that was there, that you could go back and visit whenever you wanted to.

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

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

    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.

    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.

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

    And so I put down some of the things that he said, about keeping your tools sharpened and not letting them lie on the ground where they get hurt or get abused and dirty and can't find them. And some thoughts about how his father used to do things.

    If you're an amateur artist, you can get it sometimes and not other times and you can't tell and you can't always do it over again.

    But part of the enjoyment I take in it is finding the most efficient way to do it, which doesn't mean the corrections aren't made. I like to have a feeling of the whole task before I start, even if it changes.

    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.

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

    In this case we're building a corner to stretch a fence and hang a gate. It had a real purpose in the ranch here. I needed to do this. But at the same time, it made a beautiful structure.


    More Bruce Nauman Quotations (Based on Topics)


    Art - Work & Career - Time - Mind - Excuse - Change - Pleasure - Honesty & Integrity - Drawing & Painting - Thought & Thinking - Listening - Emotions - Beauty - View All Bruce Nauman Quotations

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