Contents
Nam June Paik
Helping establish video art by turning television sets, electronic images and live broadcasts into artistic material.
TV Buddha · TV Garden
- Born
- 20 July 1932
- Birthplace
- Seoul, South Korea
- Died
- 29 January 2006
More people
Nam June Paik
Nam June Paik was a Korean-born artist whose musical training led to performance and electronic media. He treated technology as something artists and audiences could play with, reshape and question.
Early life
Music first
Trained as a pianist and studied aesthetics at the University of Tokyo after his family left Korea during the war.
Experimental influences
Continued studying in West Germany, where John Cage and the Fluxus movement shaped his thinking.
Career
- 1963
Television as an artwork
Presented altered television sets in a pioneering exhibition in Wuppertal.
- 1964
New York collaborations
Moved to New York and began working with cellist Charlotte Moorman.
- 1970s
Electronic experiments
Developed video synthesis with engineer Shuya Abe and combined monitors with sculptural settings.
- 1980s–1990s
Global broadcasts
Linked performers across countries through satellite television and large installations.
Selected work
TV Buddha
A Buddha statue faces its own live image on a television.
TV Garden
Televisions sit among living plants.
Good Morning, Mr. Orwell
A live satellite broadcast connected international performers.
Electronic Superhighway
A neon map of the United States filled with moving television images.
Beyond the studio
An international life
Worked across Korea, Japan, Europe and the United States rather than within one national art scene.
Later years
Continued making work after a 1996 stroke limited his mobility.
Sources & photo credit
Life, career and references ↗Museum or specialist research ↗Photo: 김언호. Public domain · Original image. Cropped and displayed in monochrome.
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