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Andrew Head / Andrew Head Reversed, Nose to Nose

Bruce Nauman American

Not on view

Here, two disembodied heads form a tableau evocative of mutilation. A cast of Nauman’s own tongue in one of the heads makes them even more unsettling. The title refers to Andrew Peters, a model for Nauman’s series of hollow wax heads, begun in 1989. Wax is traditionally used only in the intermediate stages of sculpting and casting, but here Nauman fashions from it a finished work of art. At the same time, he has also left wrinkles and casting seams, details that would generally be removed in more polished objects.

Andrew Head / Andrew Head Reversed, Nose to Nose, Bruce Nauman (American, born Fort Wayne, Indiana, 1941), Wax and pigment

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