Nauman ca. 1975, photographed by Mimi Jacobs
Bruce Nauman was born on December 6, 1941, in Fort Wayne, Indiana. As an artist, he is primarily known for his work in video and neon signs. Beyond that, he has worked in sculpture, photography, drawing, printmaking, and performance art. He started his college career studying math and physics at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, from 1960-64, but upon realizing he had no passion for the field switched to studying art. In 1964, he gave up painting and began to focus on sculpture, performance, and video art. He then studied art at University of California Davis from 1965-66.
In the late 1960s, he taught at San Francisco Art Institute and University of California at Irvine. From there, he moved from Northern California to Pasadena in 1969, then to Pecos, New Mexico, in 1979, before finally settling in Galisteo, New Mexico in 1989. He lives in Galisteo to this day with his wife Susan Rothenberg, who is a painter.
Upon graduating and establishing his studio practice, he decided that “If I was an artist and I was in the studio, then whatever I was doing in the studio must be art. At this point art became more of an activity and less of a product”. This philosophy is especially apparent in his video art, which can be very spontaneous and only loosely planned. This freedom to experiment in the studio was very important to his art practice, and he credits the switch from film to video as a turning point in his career for allowing him to act spontaneously in the studio. He is still active today.