The Real Thing

"It took me years before I saw their paintings except in reproductions, and then it was an amazing experience. I had thought that (Barnett) Newman was a hard-edge painter, until I saw the physicality of the paint, the scale, the softness of his lines. Actually seeing his art, his or de Kooning's or Lichtenstein's, gave a sense that maybe art was something I might do too. It made it real." - Bruce Nauman

Source: Portraits by Michael Kimmelman