A Rose Has No Teeth: Bruce Nauman’s Formative Years

A Rose Has No Teeth: Bruce Nauman’s Formative Years is currently on view at the Menil Collection in Houston, Texas.

The exhibition, which provides new research and insight into a vital early stage of Nauman’s career, features the full range of Nauman‚Äôs work from the 1960s, when he laid the foundation for all of his subsequent, groundbreaking work in sculpture, performance, and film and video art.
These early experiments, in which he discovered process to be more fundamental than product, established his reputation as one of the most innovative artists of his generation.
Featured is more than 100 works, including drawings, sculpture, neon reliefs, photographs, documentation of performances, films, videos, sound and text works, installations, artist books, and ephemera.

Over the past forty years, Nauman’s work has remained constant in its explorations and, at the same time, varied in its scope. His work employs forms that range from Post-Minimalism and Conceptual art to film and video and installation art, through which a series of themes and ideas consistently appear: the use of the body as a material; the integration of art and language; the relationship of art and architecture; and dichotomies as concealment and revelation, interior and exterior, and positive and negative space.

The New York Times: “A pioneer in Post-Minimalist video and performance art, and a sculptor of seemingly limitless versatility, Mr. Nauman has been famous and critically admired since he arrived on the scene‚Ķand his work has exerted an important influence on contemporary art ever since.”

The Menil Collection
1515 Sul Ross
Houston, Texas 77006

Exhibition on view October 25, 2007 – January 13, 2008