BASEL.- From 16 March 2018 on, Schaulager is presenting a comprehensive retrospective of the work of Bruce Nauman. Born in 1941 and based in New Mexico, Nauman is widely acknowledged as one of the seminal artists of our time. The exhibition brings together rarely exhibited pieces alongside renowned key works. The show includes the world premiere of the artist’s most recent works, the monumental sculpture Leaping Foxes (2018) and a 3D video titled Contrapposto Split (2017), as well as the European debut of the monumental video projection Contrapposto Studies, i through vii (2015 / 2016). In addition, three works of Nauman’s from the Emanuel Hoffmann Foundation will be presented at Kunstmuseum Basel. The exhibition “Bruce Nauman: Disappearing Acts” is organized in collaboration with The Museum of Modern Art, New York.

As the first comprehensive retrospective of Bruce Nauman’s work in 25 years, the exhibition spans some five decades of this exceptional artist’s career. It draws on the important bodies of work held by the Emanuel Hoffmann Foundation and The Museum of Modern Art. The Emanuel Hoffmann Foundation, whose holdings are stored at Schaulager, has been collecting Nauman’s work since the early 1970s. These works will be complemented by loans from over 70 renowned institutions and private collections from all over the world.

Some 170 works spanning an entire career
Bruce Nauman is a crucial protagonist of contemporary art. He explores such issues as language, space and the body, probing the structures of power and social conventions. Time and again he challenges our powers of perception and imagination through persistent inquiry into aesthetic and moral values and ways of seeing.

The retrospective at Schaulager comprises over 170 works, representing all phases of Nauman’s career from the mid-1960s to the present day. From several different angles, the exhibition reveals the artist’s unique mastery of a steadily expanding spectrum of media ranging from video, drawings, prints and photographs to sculptures, neon works, sound pieces and installations that quite literally draw viewers in.

Rarely seen works will be showcased, for example the impressive sculpture Model for Trench and Four Buried Passages (1977) or the video installation Green Horses (1988), alongside familiar key works, including early performances recorded on video such as Walk with Contrapposto and Wall-Floor Positions (both 1968), the architecturally-scaled piece Corridor Installation (Nick Wilder Installation) (1970), the iconic 1967 neon spiral The True Artist Helps the World by Revealing Mystic Truths (Window or Wall Sign) and the video installation Mapping the Studio II with color shift, flip, flop, & flip / flop (Fat Chance John Cage) from 2001.

The wide-ranging retrospective also offers a chance to examine Nauman’s drawings in depth – from sketches to detailed studies and technical construction plans.

Two world premieres and a European premiere
The exhibition features the world premiere of Nauman’s Contrapposto Split from 2017. The work takes a new approach to challenging perception and undermining expectations. Here, as earlier in his career, Nauman employs state-of-the-art recording technology. An extremely complex 3D imaging process gives the impression that the artist’s studio has extended into the space of the exhibition: it is as if we ourselves were there with the artist, as he paces back and forth alternating between supporting leg and free leg, his hands folded behind his head. The video was filmed in high resolution (4 K) and is projected at a rate of 120 frames per second (120 fps), thus transmitting a considerably greater density of visual information than viewers are ordinarily accustomed to seeing in films and video.

Schaulager announced another premiere, the new sculpture Leaping Foxes (2018), a pyramid constructed out of animal forms that are used in taxidermy, suspended upside down from the ceiling.

In addition, “Bruce Nauman: Disappearing Acts” presents the European premiere of the monumental HD video installation Contrapposto Studies, i through vii (2015 / 16), a joint acquisition of the Emanuel Hoffmann Foundation and The Museum of Modern Art. Here Nauman takes up the same motif as in the 1968 video Walk with Contrapposto and relies once again on his own body as the point of departure.