Bowdoin College Museum of Art

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1985.33

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Oiled/Dead

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Artist

Bruce Nauman (Fort Wayne, IN, 1941 - )

Title

Oiled/Dead

Creation Date

1975

Dimensions

45 1/2 in. x 49 1/2 in. (115.6 cm. x 125.7 cm.)

Object Type

Creation Place

North America, United States

Medium and Support

silkscreen and lithograph on paper

Credit Line

Museum Purchase

Copyright

This artwork may be under copyright. For further information, please consult the Museum’s Copyright Terms and Conditions.

Accession Number

1985.33

Bruce Nauman’s wide-ranging artistic practice examines concepts of the self, the body, and habitation through parodic or disturbing means. In the early 1970s he began creating text-based neon light sculptures that transformed everyday speech into a material object. Nauman uses language for its irreverence and weight, creating linguistic-aesthetic experiences that are both deeply familiar and uncomfortable. Here, the words “oiled” and “dead” pop out in their visual contrast: one word is printed crisply and smoothly (recalling the characteristics of a well-oiled machine), while the other is rendered in a more gestural, messy way. This contrast refers back to the work’s inception as a collage: Nauman had experimented with combining two formerly distinct print images that read “dead fish” and “oiled meat.”