In this interview Rauschenberg speaks
of his role as a bridge from the Abstract Expressionists to the Pop artists; the relationship
of affluence and art; his admiration for de Kooning, Jack Tworkov, and Franz Kline; the support he received from musicians Morton Feldman, John Cage, and Earl Brown; his goal to create work which serves as unbiased documentation
of his observations; the irrational juxtaposition that makes up a city, and the importance
of that element in his work; the facsimile quality
of painting and consequent limitations; the influence
of Albers» teaching and his resulting inability to do work focusing on pain, struggle, or torture; the «lifetime»
of painting and the problems
of time relative symbolism; his feelings on the possibility
of truly simulating chance in his work; his use
of intervals, and its possible relation to the influence
of Cage; his attempt to show as much drama on the edges
of a piece as in the
dead center; his belief in the importance
of being stylistically flexible throughout a career; his involvement with the Stadtlijk Museum; his loss
of interest in sculpture; his belief in the mixing
of technology and aesthetics; his interest in moving to the country and the prospect
of working with water, wind, sun, rain, and flowers; Ad Reinhardt's remarks on his Egan Show; his discontinuation
of silk screens; his illustrations for Life Magazine; his role as a non-political artist; his struggles with abstraction; his recent theater work «
Map Room Two;» his white paintings; and his disapproval
of value hierarchy in art.
Recent solo exhibitions include «Bruce Nauman:
Mapping the Studio I (Fat Chance John Cage),» the Dia
Center for the Arts, New York (2002); «Bruce Nauman:
Mapping the Studio,» Museum für Gegenwartkunst, Basel, Switzerland (2002); «Bruce Nauman: Theaters
of Experience,» Deutsche Guggenheim, Berlin, Germany (2003); «Bruce Nauman: Make Me Think Me,» Tate Liverpool, England (2006); «A Rose Has No Teeth: Bruce Nauman in the 1960s,» UC Berkeley Art Museum & Pacific Film Archive (2007); «Bruce Nauman:
Dead Shot Dan,» Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis, MO (2009); and «Notations / Bruce Nauman: Days and Giorni,» Philadelphia Museum
of Art (2009).