Bruce Nauman's Neon Messages

Bruce Nauman is an original artist who cannot be clearly labeled as a specific type of artist. He can be viewed with some qualities of a contemporary artist or a minimalist; however, he does not commit to one specific genre. He has a traveling expedition of neon and instillation works known as the Bruce Nauman Works with Lights, organized by the Milwaukee Art Museum. The exhibit is also at the Andy Warhol Museum which was fabricated based on the templates and sketches of Nauman. Nauman himself did not create the originals showing how he does not believe that art should not be a one-of-a-kind made by the artist with a sense of mysticism. Nauman rather thought that he "could make art that would kind of disappear, an art that was supposed to not quite look like art", stated at an art exhibit.

In Nauman's neon art he connects poetry and visual art. Nauman claims the text on an exhibition label, "language is a powerful tool which breaks down where poetry and art occur." In "Violins Violence Silence", those three words light up alternately; if the viewer considers the connections between the words, a narrative might arise from seemingly random words. Nauman has noted often that his works focus on the human predicament: sex and violence, humor and horror, life and death. One of his first pieces, "The True Artist Helps the World by Revealing Mystic Truths" is a spiral-shaped, red and blue neon from 1967 whose language is a most pointed vehicle for Nauman's conviction. This was originally displayed in his grocery storefront studio proclaiming a private thought to a general public.

Nauman wanted to make art that didn't look like art. His neon sign was just another advertisement on the street, making a subtle impact on the consciousness of those who simply passed by. The statements that he makes with these neon lights are left to interpretation but they are written down. They might not be true but when one reads them in a sense it makes them true. His worth has a truth to the fallacies that he writes and causes people to approach these signs with an open mind. It is up to the viewer to believe the art giving his art a kind of uncertainty.