Bruce Nauman Quotes

In art it is always as though the question is what the work of art is really about.

Painting is the aesthetic side of the object but it has never been original, has never been its own goal.

The whole Modernist lie is that art is about the artist.

I realize that every picture isn't a work of art.

Art doesn't transform. It just plain forms.

Life is very nice, but it lacks form. It's the aim of art to give it some.

I don't think I'm making any great statements, and I certainly don't think I'm making art.

I don't believe in art. I believe in artists.

The role of art in society differs for every artist.

I just want to make cool art work that has some meaning.

What does art mean to me? I never really think about the 'meaning' of art. Yet, obviously, that's what I do.

Can one make works which are not works of 'art'?

The closer and more completely you can come to explaining what a work of art means, the less like art it seems.

There remains this belief that the work itself can have an identity that can speak, whether it's through beauty, or through ugliness, or whatever quality you put into the work. The work doesn't have to be a transparent vehicle for you to say things about life today.

I think there is an element of nihilism about, but I don't think most artists feel their work is meaningless.

I have no ideas about what the paintings imply about the world. I don't think that's a painter's business. He just paints paintings without a conscious reason.

If art has a purpose, it is to interpret life, reproduce it in fresh visions.

My Ready-Mades have nothing to do with the 'objet trouve' because the so-called 'found object' is completely directed by personal taste. Personal taste decides that this is a beautiful object and is unique.

I'm not trying to do conceptual art.

The principles of true art is not to portray, but to evoke.

Unlike fashion, art isn't applied. It doesn't have to serve anybody. It doesn't have to be there for any other reason than to give an impression of what the world is about.

Of what use were the arts if they were only the reproduction and the imitation of life?

In the arts the way in which an idea is rendered, and the manner in which it is expressed, is much more important than the idea itself.

Every artist in the world likes his or her work to make people think.

The point of painting is not really deception or imitation.