Rhys Howell
New Media Artist Research Paper 10/3/11
Nam June Paik
Nam June Paik is widely considered to be the first visual artist. Many say he is the “father of video art”. His list of accolades is extensive, one of which being his creation of the term “electronic super highway”. Although he passed away in 2006 from complications of a stroke suffered in 1996, his influence in new media, particularly video art, permeates with present day visual artists as a classic example of where innovation and creativity can take you when their boundaries are pushed.
Paik was first inspired to enter the electronic art field by John Cage and Karlheinz Stockhausen, both of whom were composers he met during his studies of music history at the University of Munich. At this time he also became involved in the neo-dada art movement known as Fluxus, which was a league of electronic musicians and visual artists in the 1950’s and 60’s. In 1965 Paik bought his first video camera, and went to Japan to experiment with modified television sets and electromagnets. In cohorts with an electronic engineer named Shuya Abe, Paik built his first video synthesizer in 1969.
Paik’s work was heavily focused on international pop culture, and often interlaced various forms of media from multiple cultures. Characteristics of his work entailed numerous visual techniques, often featuring textured and stacked images, single images that divided into several in the same frame, all usually done in some sort of a satirical or ironic context. Much of this was done in collaboration with many of Paik’s artistic peers of that time, some of which are ; John Cage, (A Tribute to John Cage, 1973), Merce Cunningham (Merce by Merce by Palk, 1978) and Julien Beck and Judith Malina, ( Living with the Living Theatre, 1989).
Nam June Paik received countless accolades and rewards for his work with new media and visual art throughout his life time. He won the American Film Institute’s Maya Deren award for Independent Film and Video, the Kyoto Award in Japan, and also the New York City Mayor’s award to distinguished immigrants. In 1999 he was listed as one of “The Century’s 25 Most Influential Artists” by ARTNews. Much of his work is on exhibit in numerous museums across the world, including the Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum, the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris, the Museum of Modern Art in San Francisco, and the Holly Solomon Gallery in New York. Although he passed in 2006, it’s clear that his legacy and influence in the world of new media, and even the much broader world of modern art, still resonates to this day.
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I really enjoy Nam June Paik work. All the action and color involved in his pieces. How he uses all the t.v. screens to create a very large piece of art. I can agree with those who say he was the "father of video art."
ReplyDeleteIt's amazing how life can send us spinning off into directions we never expected--he was studying music history, but by encountering these certain people with certain ideas, he changed directions and became not only a creator in this new art form, but a pioneering innovator.
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