Elusive Signs: Bruce Nauman Works with Light (The MIT Press)
Category: Books,Arts & Photography,Architecture
Elusive Signs: Bruce Nauman Works with Light (The MIT Press) Details
About the Author Joseph Ketner II is Chief Curator at the Milwaukee Art Museum.Joseph Ketner II is Chief Curator at the Milwaukee Art Museum.Janet Kraynak is a New York-based art historian. Read more
Reviews
In contrast to other reviewers' reactions, I found Gregory Volk's provocative piece in this book to be a perspective-enlarging and intellectually refreshing experience. Volk steps outside of the parochialism of the art world to draw parallels with literature in a way that surprised and delighted me. Even if Nauman has never read Dickinson and Emerson, their work is still relevant to invoke in discussions about his art because the transcendentalist writers have helped shape the American cultural context, and their contributions have become part of the "collective unconscious" from which our artists draw. And more importantly, it creates a fascinating lens through which to view Nauman's work, emphasizing aspects of the work that don't come into focus through more traditional approaches.Volk convincingly argues that "Nauman taps into a particularly visionary strain of artmaking in this country" and draws parallels with Emerson's focus on "core-level matters of what it means to be a human being; his mix of cerebral investigation and hard-hitting emotions; and his consistent ability to find fresh, oftentimes highly unorthodox methods for delving into his concerns". Volk creatively explores the implications of these parallels throughout his essay, and at times his cross-disciplinary analysis is so striking that the insights themselves feel transcendent. An example is when Volk points to Dickinson's exhortation, "Tell the truth, but tell it slant; success in circuit lies;" this line is so startlingly apt for describing Nauman's neon work that it provoked a mental gasp when I read it.As he develops his thesis throughout the essay, Volk explores the synergies between the individual and societal psyche, drawing in cultural influences like transcendentalism to enlarge and explicate the cultural context in which Nauman's work occurs. It takes mental dexterity to be willing and able to cross the artificial boundaries academia has created between disciplines, and Volk's essay rips the conventions of art criticism wide open, leaving the reader exposed to a bracing gust of intellectual "fresh air". To understand Nauman's art in a whole new way, I highly recommend this book and, in particular, Gregory Volk's essay.
