Human/Need/Desire

Human/Need/Desire by Bruce Nauman (American, born 1941) - in the main reception of the MoMA. Gallery label text:

2007

Words relating to human want light up in a pulsing cycle, continually evoking and replacing meaning. By offering words and taking them away, this work disrupts viewers' habits of perception. Nauman believes that language is "a very powerful tool"; he was inspired to use neon tubing because of the convincing messages and hypnotic aura of neon advertisements. Here, with irony, the artist uses this flashing commercial medium—with all its wires exposed—to address fundamental elements of human experience.

Hirshhorn Museum

"[The Hirshhorn is] the biggest piece of abstract art in town-a huge, hollowed cylinder raised on four massive piers, in absolute command of its walled compound on the Mall.... The circular fountain...is a grand concoction...that for good reason has become the museum's visual trademark."

Benjamin Forgey, The Washington Post, November 4, 1989

This image is available on iStockphoto: Modern Architecture