Bruce Nauman “Disappearing Acts”

The Museum of Modern Art

This event has ended.

The Museum of Modern Art, The Steven and Alexandra Cohen Center for Special Exhibitions, sixth floor, and MoMA PS1

The Museum of Modern Art and MoMA PS1 present the first comprehensive retrospective in 25 years devoted to the work of American artist Bruce Nauman (b. 1941), on view at The Museum of Modern Art from October 21, 2018, through February 18, 2019, and at MoMA PS1 from October 21, 2018, through February 25, 2019. Co-organized by The Museum of Modern Art and Laurenz Foundation, Schaulager Basel, Bruce Nauman: Disappearing Acts draws upon the rich holdings of both institutions and nearly 70 lenders. Encompassing Nauman’s full career, the exhibition occupies the Museum’s entire sixth floor and the whole of MoMA PS1. This joint presentation will provide an opportunity to experience Nauman’s command of a wide range of mediums, from drawing, printmaking, photography, and sculpture to neon, performance, film and video, and architecturally scaled environments.

Since 1970, Nauman has frequently worked on a monumental scale, necessitating this expansive presentation across both of MoMA’s locations. Both venues include works in all mediums and from all phases of Nauman’s career, offering distinct but complementary perspectives on his wide-ranging practice. The characteristics of the two spaces have shaped the curatorial approach to each. The flexibility of The Museum of Modern Art’s sixth-floor galleries are uniquely suited to some of the artist’s largest works, and the exhibition moves swiftly from Nauman’s early sculptures derived from his own body to room-size installations that directly involve the viewer. The suite of former classrooms in MoMA PS1’s historic building houses over 120 works, organized thematically to chart the recurrence of key concepts across the decades. The presentation highlights the underlying consistencies in a seemingly disparate body of work, as the artist revisits his earlier motifs and concerns with new urgency.

Organized by The Museum of Modern Art, New York, and Laurenz Foundation, Schaulager Basel.

The exhibition is organized by Kathy Halbreich, Laurenz Foundation Curator and Advisor to the Director, The Museum of Modern Art; with Heidi Naef, Chief Curator, and Isabel Friedli, Curator, Schaulager Basel; and Magnus Schaefer, Assistant Curator, and Taylor Walsh, Curatorial Assistant, Department of Drawings and Prints, The Museum of Modern Art.