Bruce Nauman’s pensive Conceptual art from the 1970s seems timely again

Christopher Knight | LA Times | 7th April 2025

Nauman moved to Los Angeles in 1969 seeking inspiration. He took contemporary art seriously, especially Duchamp and his pun-laden works. One Nauman work from 1968 was a weighty steel slab titled “Dark”. Did that mean it was dark under the slab? Was the title written under the slab, as the artist claimed? The writer describes this work as “a compact of faith … a contract between strangers,”. That was a significant thing is turbulent 1968 and it is still a significant thing today.