According to Ubuweb, Bruce Nauman was influenced by “the experimental work of Merce Cunningham, Meredith Monk, La Monte Young, Steve Reich, and Philip Glass” (Ubuweb). The horse trainer Robert Smith, while not an artist, was also influential to Nauman’s development.
Merce Cunningham was important for his experimental use of his body, which was very important to Nauman’s practice. He tested the way his body could be used in an art context, but not in the realm of dance as Cunningham did.
Meredith Monk’s exploration of the limits of her own voice had an influence on Nauman’s work. Monk, like Nauman, used her own voice experimentally. Nauman did this specifically in the recitation of words and phrases. He was interested in how a word (or phrase) can lose its meaning through repetition.
La Monte Young was influential in his experimental use of sound, as well as his performance based art. Young made long, atmospheric, abstract soundscapes, and one can see this type of thing in Nauman’s work. Nauman uses sound to create an atmospheric effect and to affect the viewer/listener’s experience in the gallery.
The work of Steve Reich was a minimalist composer whose use of loops in his work was influential to Nauman. Nauman has often used a loop to abstract subject matter and cause the viewer/listener to experience the work from an objective point of view. Reich’s work was also like Nauman’s in that it was very process-oriented, and finding a new way to produce music was integral to Reich’s practice.
Philip Glass, like these others, was an experimental composer-pianist who has often been called “minimalist”. This examination of the use of sound inherent to minimalist music is related to Nauman’s experimental use of sound.
Robert Smith was a horse trainer, not an artist, but he acted as a mentor for Nauman. His techniques regarding horse training and the philosophies by which he lived his life were very influential to Nauman, and contributed to Nauman’s interest in portraying simple life in art (as can be seen in 2000’s “Setting a Good Corner”).