MAG is proud to present No, No, New Museum, an iconic video work by Bruce Nauman, one of the most influential artists to emerge since the late 1960s.
No, No, New Museum is an endlessly looped video recording of a green-costumed jester performing a temper tantrum, incessantly protesting “no, no, no, no, no…!” There’s no mistaking it: this is a full-fledged, albeit scripted, temper tantrum. The sharp, jarring cuts and tight focus make the high-pitched and delirious expression of frustration and rejection even more intense, abrasive, and disturbing than it would otherwise be.
Part of a series called “Clown Torture,” the video was commissioned for the New Museum in New York City. It was originally displayed in the museum’s storefront window on Broadway in 1987. What does it mean for an artwork to say “no” to the museum that commissioned it? What does it mean for a museum to display a work of art that vociferously denies its very existence?
Bruce Nauman is a pioneering artist who questions aesthetic values and established norms of good and bad. His artistic efforts are as urgent today as they’ve ever been, when so many established norms are being upended.