Bruce Conner was an American artist whose work traversed many different disciplines within the artistic world, such as painting, drawing, film, sculpture, and photography. He was considered to be one of the most prominent American artists during the postwar era. Conner lived from 1933 to 2008 and is from Kansas, where he stayed before moving to San Francisco with his wife in 1957. He received his Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from Nebraska University before going on to undertake further studies in art at the University of Colorado.

 

The first exhibition of Conner’s work contained only paintings; however the entire wide and diverse range of his work was also quickly showcased in his exhibitions. Conner has left behind an extensive filmography and he was also renowned for focusing his artwork on the themes of postwar America, such as the fear and threat of nuclear destruction. Moreover he also gained great public interest through the fake announcements that he made of his own death. He did this twice for the purpose of an artistic prank before his eventual real death in 2008.

 

The special exhibition ‘Bruce Conner: It’s All True’ is currently open at the Museum of Modern Art in New York until the 2nd October. It is the first large scale collection of Conner’s work from the whole of his career and it amasses over 250 items from the various disciplines of his art. After New York the exhibition is opening in San Francisco for the remainder of 2016 before heading to Madrid in Spain in 2017. This retrospective showcasing of Conner’s career has been described by the New York Times as an ‘extravaganza.’