Bruce Nauman

Punch and Judy II Birth & Life & Sex & Death

1985

Gouache and pencil on paper

Not on view

In this drawing Nauman has recast the traditional clown puppets, known for their slapstick antics, as a naked couple simultaneously committing acts of sex and violence on each other and on themselves. The clown, whom Nauman has described as “an abstracted idea of a person,” frequently appears in his work of the 1980s, both provoking humor—often cruel or crude—and evoking horror. Here the actions of intertwined figures, drawn in simple, boldly colored lines, perversely suggest that violence is a current cycling through birth, life, sex, and death. This drawing relates to a series of flashing neon works Nauman made in the same year, with similar themes and figures.

Gallery label from

2012.

Medium Gouache and pencil on paper
Dimensions 75 1/2 x 72 1/2" (191.8 x 184.2 cm)
Credit Gift of Werner and Elaine Dannheisser
Object number 214.1996
Department Drawings and Prints

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Bruce Nauman

Bruce Nauman

American, born 1941 93 works online

For more than 50 years, he has worked in every conceivable artistic medium, dissolving established genres and inventing new ones in the process.

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