Quotes by Bruce Nauman - Page 1

I'll talk. You'll listen.
Bruce Nauman / Artist
Heart
Listen To Your Heart
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Learn to recognise when you need to know something.
Bruce Nauman / Artist
Knows
Needs
Recognise
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I've always been interested in what happens in the studio.
Bruce Nauman / Artist
Studio
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The true artist helps the world by revealing mystic truths.
Bruce Nauman / Artist
Artist
Helping
Mystic
Revealing
World
True
Helps
True Artist
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If you really want to do it, you do it. There are no excuses.
Bruce Nauman / Artist
Excuse You
No Excuses
Want
Excuses
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I don't like to think about being an influence. It's embarrassing.
Bruce Nauman / Artist
Embarrassing
Influence
Thinking
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Pete and Repeat were sitting on a wall. Pete fell off. Who was left? Repeat.
Bruce Nauman / Artist
Repeats
Sitting
Wall
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And then what makes the work interesting is if you choose the right questions.
Bruce Nauman / Artist
Asking The Right Questions
Interesting
Right Questions
You Choose
Questions
Choose
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What I am really concerned about is what art is supposed to be - and can become.
Bruce Nauman / Artist
Art
Art Is
Concerned
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I thought I might have to give up art, but I couldn't think of anything else to do.
Bruce Nauman / Artist
Art
Giving Up
Thinking
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It's just strange to think about...whether I'll be an artist or what I'll be doing.
Bruce Nauman / Artist
Artist
Strange
Thinking
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In art, the only one who really knows whether what you've done is honest is the artist.
Bruce Nauman / Artist
Art
Done
Integrity
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My videos always involve some idea of a human being in a unusual situation-and what happens.
Bruce Nauman / Artist
Ideas
Unusual
Video
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If I was an artist, and I was in the studio, then whatever I was doing in the studio must be art.
Bruce Nauman / Artist
Art
Artist
Studios
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If you choose the wrong questions and you proceed, you still get a result, but it's not interesting.
Bruce Nauman / Artist
Interesting
Results
Stills
Questions
Proceed
Result
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I get the feeling that sometimes the ideas work very well when you're doing them in the studio alone.
Bruce Nauman / Artist
Feelings
Sometimes
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A good teacher is like a good artist. They go right to the most difficult part of whatever's going on.
Bruce Nauman / Artist
Teacher
Artist
Difficult
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I like to combine different aspects in my work, to cover different areas, but I do see them as being separate.
Bruce Nauman / Artist
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One of the factors that still keeps me in the studio is that every so often I have to more or less start all over.
Bruce Nauman / Artist
Motivation
Stills
Studios
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I think humor is used a lot of the time to keep people from getting too close. Humor side-steps and shifts the meaning.
Bruce Nauman / Artist
Shifts
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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 / Artist
Different
Interesting
Kind
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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 / Artist
Done
Gone
Sometimes
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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.
Bruce Nauman / Artist
Artist
Can Do
Ifs
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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 / Artist
Projects
Sometimes
Turns
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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.
Bruce Nauman / Artist
Running
Lap
Swim
Swimmer
Spot
Laps
Suppose
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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 / Artist
Knowing
Leave Me Alone
Steps
Way
Specific
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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 / Artist
Anger
Evident
Finished
Frustration
Studios
Necessarily
Studio
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Sometimes I just have a few people over to see the new work, and I think it works better than in a museum situation, where the public is just presented with a large area.
Bruce Nauman / Artist
People
Sometimes
Thinking
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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.
Bruce Nauman / Artist
Fence
Structure
Corner
Gate
Hang
Ranch
Stretch
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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.
Bruce Nauman / Artist
Corrections
Efficient
Enjoyment
Feelings
Mean
Tasks
Finding
Task
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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 / Artist
Aspect
Capacity
People
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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 / Artist
Activity
Hands
Interesting
Pointless
Stupid
Interesting Work
Raw
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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 / Artist
Hands
Interesting
Worry
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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.
Bruce Nauman / Artist
Abuse
Hurt
Tools
Lie
Ground
Letting
Thoughts
Sharpened
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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 / Artist
Activity
Casting
Drawing
Efficient
Repetitive
Sculpture
Thinking
Trying
Time Work Thinking
Work Time Thinking
Plaster
Studio
Requires
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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 / Artist
Art
Figures
School
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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 / Artist
Art
Doe
Should
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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 / Artist
Beautiful
Successful
Thinking
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Bruce Nauman Quotes - Page 1

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