7. Bruce Nauman

The Panza Collection Initiative focused on 30 works by Bruce Nauman, including constructed corridors and room environments (some of which incorporate closed-circuit video or audio components), one film-based installation, several early objects, and a neon language piece. Among the key issues the case study tackled were replication and change; medium and migration; and variability in installation.

Three full-length illustrated artwork history documents are available online in subseries A: 92.4171 Green Light Corridor, 1970; 91.3830 Spinning Spheres, 1970; and 91.3825 None Sing Neon Sign, 1970. Documents that entered the Guggenheim Collection during the Panza Collection acquisition were examined and reclassified when appropriate during the PCI, and are listed in subseries A. Artworks. For Bruce Nauman, 103 documents were reclassified to archives, while the status of 5 paper-based artwork components remains unchanged. As part of the PCI, 56 drawings by Nauman in the Guggenheim collection were re-cataloged as artworks; within the finding, they are both listed by their accession numbers and, when applicable, linked as related drawings to corresponding artworks.

The PCI conducted several interviews for this case study and clips from the 2016 interview with Bruce Nauman are available online as digitized content in subseries B. Interviews. Juliet Myers, the long-time studio manager for Bruce Nauman, was an important collaborator and point-person for a lengthy exchange between the project team and the Nauman studio. Between 2011 and 2013, Myers travelled to New York on three occasions for working meetings to review the specific history and installation parameters for a range of works, with special attention on Nauman’s corridors and rooms. Only the first two days of interviews have been transcribed and are accessible through the Archives. Notes from the remainder of the working meetings are restricted. Jacob Fishman, fabricator of Nauman’s neon works, was interviewed twice, once in his studio in Chicago and again in New York during an examination of a Nauman neon work.

More information can be found on the Bruce Nauman .