After the first presentation in Berlin, Konrad Fischer Galerie is now pleased to show Bruce Nauman's new video installation entitled Practice also in Düsseldorf. Since Six Sound Problems for Konrad Fischer, the artist’s first solo exhibition in Europe at Konrad Fischer in 1968, Konrad Fischer Galerie has held 19 solo exhibitions dedicated to Bruce Nauman and assisted in presenting his work at numerous exhibitions around the world.
Nauman has repeatedly made his body, and in particular his hands, the object of his work. Practice shows the artist's hands slowly moving across on an old wooden table. In this process, the camera alternately shows the left and right hand, each of which draws one and the same mark on the tabletop. The apparently endlessly repeating gesture remains the same, forming an X over and over again.
Nauman's work is inspired by reading the catalog Reservation X: The Power of Place from the First People's Hall at the Canadian Museum of Civilization, which his grandson gave him. An illustration in the book shows a contract signed in 1877 between the Canadian government and a chief of the Siksika, otherwise known as the Blackfoot. While the representative of the Canadian government signed with his full name, the chief signed the contract of sale for vast tracts of land with an X. The Canadian authorities supplemented the X with the English name of the chief and the words "his mark.“
Practice, conceived as a 2D black-and-white video installation, represents the artist's initial engagement with the issue.Over and over, Nauman rehearsed the movements of his hands and fingers on the table top. This artistic process developed to become the work Practice. The layers of meaning in this work refer both to practice in the sense of carrying something out and in the sense of training to do something.
For the first time in Germany, Konrad Fischer Galerie is showing Bruce Nauman's HD video installation Walks In Walks Out, created back in 2015, a study also filmed with an iPhone that shows the artist scaling the video work Contrapposto Studies, i through vii (2015/16) by using his own body.
In parallel with the two video installations, Konrad Fischer Galerie will provide a comprehensive look at the printmaking oeuvre of the artist. Nauman began training in printmaking in the early 1960s while a student at the University of Wisconsin. Since the 1970s, he has explored a variety of techniques and still today collaborates with workshops such as Gemini G.E.L. and Cirrus Editions.
Bruce Nauman (b. 1941) lives and works in New Mexico. Recent exhibitions include: Disappearing Acts (2018/2019) at Schaulager Basel and Museum of Modern Art, New York; Bruce Nauman at Tate Modern London (2020) and Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam (2021), Contrapposto Studies at Punta della Dogana, Venice (2021/2022), Bruce Nauman: OK OK OK at M WOODS Museum, Beijing (2022), and just recently Bruce Nauman: Neons, Corridors & Rooms at Pirelli Hangar Bicocca, Milan (2022/2023).
Nauman has received numerous awards, including the Golden Lion at the Venice Biennale in 1999 and 2009 and Japan’s Praemium Imperiale in 2004.
