(Detail)
1941
Born December 6 in Fort Wayne, Indiana. Father is an engineer for General
Electric, and the family moves every three or four years. Studies piano
and classical guitar during his youth.
1960
Enters University of Wisconsin, Madison, where he studies mathematics,
physics, and art (with Alfred Sessler). Informally studies music (in particular,
the works of Beethoven, Webern, Berg, and Schsnberg) and philosophy (especially
Wittgenstein's Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus (1922) and Philosophical
Investigations (1953).
1964
Marries first wife, Judy, in Madison, Wisconsin. Graduates in June with
bachelor's degree, major in art. In the fall enters graduate program in
art at the University of California, Davis. Studies with William T. Wiley
and Robert Arneson. Serves as teaching assistant to Wayne Thiebaud in a
life-drawing class.
1964-66
Initially a painter, abandons the medium soon after entering graduate school;
begins work with sculpture, performance, film. Publishes first artist's
book, Pictures of Sculpture in a Room (1965-1966). Collaborates with Robert
Nelson and William Allan on film projects (1965-1966)
1966
Birth of son, Erik. Moves to Vacaville, California, in spring. Graduates
UC Davis in June with master's degree in art. Following graduation moves
to San Francisco, where he establishes a studio and living space in a former
grocery store. Teaches part-time in the fall at the San Francisco Art Institute.
Collaborates with Wiley on several projects, including The Slant Step
Show at the Berkeley Gallery in San Francisco and a brief, joint correspondence
with H.C. Westermann.
First solo exhibition at the Nicholas Wilder Gallery, Los Angeles. First
group exhibition in New York, Eccentric Abstraction, at the Fischbach
Gallery.
Reads plays and stories by Samuel Beckett. Sees Man Ray retrospective
at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.
1967
Moves to Mill Valley, California. Is Influenced by readings of Alain Robbe-Grillet's
novel Jealousy and Frederick Perls' Gestalt Therapy: Excitement and
Growth in the Human Personality (1951).
1968
Meets dancer-choreographer Meredith Monk and composer Steve Reich: encounters
work of John Cage, Merce Cunningham, and Kartheinz Stockhausen.
Receives Artist Fellowship Award from the National Endowment for the Arts:
travels to New York and spends winter months working on videotapes while
living in Southampton, New York. First solo exhibition in New York at the
Leo Castelli Gallery.
Travels in Europe. First European solo exhibition at Galerie Konrad Fischer
Dusseldorf. Because of the expense involved in shipping work to Europe,
most of the pieces exhibited by the Fischer gallery in the 1960s and early
1970s are either of a more conceptual nature than those shown in the United
States or are actually fabricated in West Germany. Participates in Documenta
4.
1969
Moves to Pasadena, California. Stages performance in New York at the Whitney
Museum of American Art in conjunction with the exhibition Anti-illusion:
Procedures/Materials, in which his first corridor installation,
Performance Corridor, is included.
1970
Birth of daughter, Zoe. Invited by Jasper Johns to design stage sets for
Tread, first performed by the Merce Cunningham Dance Company in January.
Teaches spring quarter at the University of California, Irvine. Receives
grant from the Aspen Institute for Humanistic Studies: spends summer in
Colorado. Influenced by reading of Elias Canetti's Crowds and Power (1970).
Participates in his last live performance, with Richard Serra, in a Meredith
Monk piece in Santa Barbara.
1972
First solo museum exhibition, Bruce Nauman: Work from 1965 to 1972,
co-organized by the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and the Whitney Museum
of American Art, New York. The show travels to four sites in Europe and
to Houston and San Francisco in the United States.
1973
Employs actors for the first time in his videos Elke Allowing the Floor
to Rise Up over Her, Face Up and Tony Sinking into the Floor,
Face Up and Face Down, his last videotapes until 1985.
1979
Completes sculpture Studio Piece, his last work made in Pasadena
studio. Moves to Pecos, New Mexico, where he builds new studio. Develops
interest in horseback riding and training.
1981
Reads V.S. Naipaul's stories The Return of Eva Peron and The
Killings in Trinidad (both 1980) and Jacobo Timerman's book Prisoner
without a Name, Cell without a Number (1981). An overview of his work,
Bruce Nauman 1972-81, is organized by the Rijksmuseum Krsller-Muller,
Otterlo, the Netherlands.
1982
Bruce Nauman: Neons is organized by the Baltimore Museum of Art.
Exhibition stimulates Nauman to focus once again on the medium, and he
completes many works in neon in the following years.
1983
Bruce Nauman: Dream Passage, Stadium Piece, Musical Chairs - Drei neue
Arbeiten is organized by the Museum Haus Esters, Krefeld, West Germany.
1985
Makes his first videotape since 1973. Good Boy Bad Boy, part of
his three-room installation at the Museum Haus Esters.
1986
Meets horseman Ray Hunt, a committed instructor and a man of few words,
who inspires Nauman's increasingly serious interest in horse training.
Bruce Nauman Drawings/Zeichnungen 1965-1986, is organized by the
Museum fur Gegenwartskunst, Basel, and tours extensively in West Germany,
the Netherlands, and the United States. The Whitechapel Art Gallery, London,
organizes "Bruce Nauman," which presents works in a number of
media and travels to Paris and Basel.
1988
Makes Green Horses, a video installation including footage that
shows Nauman riding a horse. This is the artist's first appearance in his
own work since the late 1960s. Collaborates with choreographer Margaret
Jenkins and composer Terry Allen on Rollback, a dance.
1989
Marries artist Susan Rothenberg. Establishes home and studio in Galisteo,
New Mexico. Receives Honorary Doctor of Fine Arts from the San Francisco
Art Institute.
1990
Makes series of video works entitled Raw Material, the first works
to be made in his newly constructed studio. An exhibition of recent work,
Bruce Nauman: Skulpturen und Installationen 1985-1990, is organized
by the Museum fur Gegenwartskunst, Basel. Receives Max Beckmann Prize,
Frankfurt am Main, Germany.
1993
Receives Wolf Prize in Arts-Sculpture, Herzlia, Israel.