Bruce Naauman 100 Live And Die Analysis

Bruce Nauman is a fascinating artist. His career spans over 50 years and he has worked in a variety of different styles and mediums. He creates works that aren’t necessarily aesthetically appealing in the traditional sense, but they are still works of art because of his intention and message behind it. Many of his works, incluidinf the ones that will be mentioned later, feature strange forms, odd angles, and lack color. He does not create work to please the eye. He creates work to get people to think. He uses materials ranging from plain masking tape to audio and sound. Nauman himself states “I 'm surprised when the work appears beautiful, and very pleased. And I think work can be very good and very successful without being able to call it …show more content…
Created in 1984, the piece consists of different colored neon tubes mounted on top of metal sheets. The tubes, like signs outside a cheap diner, spell out various phrases. There are 4 columns of the phrases, each referring to an action and either living or dying. For example, one of the phrases is “laugh and die”. (art 21) One of the more obvious examples, 100 Live and Die suggests that life and death are arbitrary. People attempt to understand the unknowable with religion and spirituality, but in reality things may not happen for a reason. To use examples from the artwork, someone may be sick and live, but someone else might be well and still die. (themes of contemporary …show more content…
This piece, created in 1997, is a screen print. At first glance, the work is simply 2 words on a mostly blank page. However, upon closer inspection we can see that the “u” in the word truth is actually a “v”. (Moma) The falsehood plays with the phrase, confirming that this is indeed a partial truth. It is also worth noting the phrase partial truth is just a polite way of calling something a lie. All humor aside, this piece relates to existence due to the fact that things are rarely what they seem to be. Humans are deceptive creatures and often create duality within themselves to hide perceived flaws. With everyone having done it, our lives could very well be partial truths. For example, people may bully their peers and appear strong. In reality, they may be trying to compensate for a weakenss. The same thing happens with material desires. People will lie and present themselves a certain way in order to get what they want instead of admitting their true intentions. We believe we are interacting with people and places but learn they are something else