Bruce Nauman : Disappearing Acts Bruce Nauman

Nauman’s art has always defied categorization. Delicate watercolors, flashing neon signs, sound installations, video corridors—he is constantly shifting between all these and more, never conforming to a signature style. But underneath this sheer variety, crucial themes persist, and disappearance has been one such recurring impulse over his 50-year career.
Disappearing Acts traces what Nauman has called “withdrawal as an art form”—both literal and figurative incidents of removal, deflection, and concealment. Bodies are fragmented, centers are left empty, voices emanate from hidden speakers, and the artist sculpts himself in absentia, appearing only as negative space. The retrospective charts these forms of omission and loss across media and throughout the decades, following Nauman as he circles back to earlier concerns with new urgency. Presented in two complementary parts, at The Museum of Modern Art and MoMA PS1, this is the most comprehensive exhibition of the artist’s work ever assembled.