bLOGOS/HA HA: Fountain (continued) : AtlanTAR cops beat early-Nauman reconstrucTAR

David Jones, artist and poet (1895-1974) begins his PREFACE TO THE ANATHEMATA :

'I have made a heap of all that I could find.' (1) So wrote Nennius, or whoever composed the introductory matter to Historia Brittonum. He speaks of an 'inward wound' which was caused by the fear that certain things dear to him 'should be like smoke dissipated'. Further, he says, 'not trusting my own learning, which is none at all, but partly from writings and monuments of the ancient inhabitants of Britain, partly from the annals of the Romans and the chronicles of the sacred fathers, Isidore, Hieronymous, Prosper, Eusebius and from the histories of the Scots and Saxons although our enemies . . . I have lispingly put together this . . . about past transactions, that [this material] might not be trodden under foot'. (2)

(1) The actual words are coacervavi omne quod inveni, and occur in Prologue 2 to the Historia.
(2) Quoted from the translation of Prologue 1. See The Works of Gildas and Nennius, J.A.Giles, London 1841.

02 March 2017

Fountain (continued) : AtlanTAR cops beat early-Nauman reconstrucTAR

Artist
Bruce Nauman (1941-)

Title
Self Portrait as a Fountain

Portfolio/Series
Eleven Color Photographs

Date
1966-67, printed 1970

Medium
Chromogenic print

Dimensions
Sheet (sight): 20 1/16 × 23 15/16 in. (51 × 60.8 cm) Image (sight): 19 1/2 × 23 1/4 in. (49.5 × 59.1 cm)

Edition information
7/8

Credit line
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; Purchase

Accession number
70.50.9

Rights and Reproductions Information
© artist or artist’s estate

Object Label
Self-Portrait as a Fountain is one of Bruce Nauman’s Photographic Suite of eleven photographs based on puns. The portfolio reveals Bruce Nauman’s interest in the functions of language, as he humorously depicts literal interpretations of common phrases. In Self-Portrait as a Fountain, Nauman questions the traditional role of the artist. He depicts himself shirtless, with raised arms and open palms, spewing an arc of water out of his pursed lips, in imitation of the nude statues customarily found in decorative fountains. Thus the artist and the work of art become one and the same. During the period in which he made this work, Nauman used the statement “The true artist is an amazing luminous fountain” in a number of text-based works. This playful illustration of the statement satirizes the cliché of the artist as a prolific genius who spews forth a steady stream of masterpieces. Self-Portrait as a Fountain also pays homage to Marcel Duchamp‘s notorious Fountain (1917)—a readymade porcelain urinal that Duchamp provocatively exhibited as a sculpture. Like Fountain, Nauman’s Self-Portrait as a Fountain subverts conventional definitions of what constitutes a work of art.

Atlan Theatre of the Actors of Regard

after The Persecution and Assassination of

Jean-Paul Marat as Performed by the Inmates of the Asylum of Charenton Under the Direction of the Marquis de Sade aka Marat/Sade

Act 1 : enter the 'crazy' post-Duchamp early-Nauman reconstrucTAR - pauses to regard HAND SPACE exhibition - soundtrack of The Mamas &
The Papas "People Like Us" :