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Basic Data

The multimedia artist Nam June Paik is today considered the most important pioneer of video and media art. Paik is best known for his video sculptures in which he stages manipulated television sets as sculptural works. He worked at the intersection of art, technology and popular culture.

  • Born: 20 July 1932
  • Place of birth: Seoul, South Korea
  • Died on: 29 January 2006
  • Nationality: American
  • Studied at: University Tokyo, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität Munich, Hochschule für Musik Freiburg
  • Teachers: Arnold Schönberg, Wolfgang Fortner
  • Similar artists: Joseph Beuys
  • Era: Modern art
  • Stylistic direction: Video art, Fluxus

 

Nam June Paik prices

Artist: Title: Price: Type: Size: Edition: Handsigned: Numbered: Date:
Nam June Paik Satelite Duo 850 Euro Original print 33.07 x 23.39 in limited edition of 35 + X yes yes 31.07.2019
Nam June Paik Triangle Trinity 2500 Euro Original print 19.7 x 15.7 in limited edition of 60 yes yes 31.07.2019

 

Biography

Nam June Paik was born in Seoul on July 20, 1932, the son of a textile and steel manufacturer. With the outbreak of the Korean War, the family fled to Tokyo. Here Paik studied Western aesthetics, art and musicology from 1952 to 1956. This was followed by music studies at the University of Munich and composition at the Musikhochschule in Freiburg.

Paik's encounter with the composer John Cage at the end of the 1950s is considered a decisive "key event," from which his concept for his action music entitled "Hommage à John Cage" also emerged. In the early 1960s, he began to incorporate television into his artistic works. His goal is to make the fundamentals of electronic music visible through this visual medium. In addition, he realizes installations, participates in happenings and collaborates with artists such as Joseph Beuys and Wolf Vostell.

In the years that followed, he continued to expand the technical possibilities of his electronic painting. In 1977 he married the video artist Shigeko Kubota and two years later accepted a professorship at the renowned Düsseldorf Art Academy. In 1982, his first retrospective is held at the Whitney Museum of American Art. He realizes a large installation at the Centre Pompidou, which once again significantly raises his worldwide profile as a multimedia artist. This was followed by projects such as the tryptych "Beuys-Voice" at documenta 8 in Kassel and the largest of his installations to date, "The more the better" (1988), for the Olympic Games in Seoul.

Since the late 1980s, the video artist has lived in Wiesbaden and New York City, where he also had his studio. Since 1997, Paik has been confined to a wheelchair due to a hemiplegia caused by a stroke. With the help of assistants, however, he continued his artistic work. In June 1998 Paik received the Kyoto Prize, which was endowed with 700,000 DM. On January 29, Paik died in Miami at the age of 73. Today, Nam June Paik is referred to as the "father of video art." His influence on the next generation of media artists is still unmistakable today.

 

Exhibitions

  • 08.10.2021 – 23.01.2022 EURASIA – A Landscape of Mutability – MuHKA – Museum of Contemporary Art Antwerp.
  • 15.09.2021 – 12.12.2021 NOTHINGTOSEENESS – Leere/Weiß/Stille – Akademie der Künste, Berlin.
  • 10.09.2021 – 30.01.2022 Spirit Labor: Duration, Difficulty, and Affect – Garage Museum of Contemporary Art, Moscow.
  • 13.08.2021 – 14.11.2021 GLOBAL GROOVE - Kunst, Tanz, Performance und Protest – Museum Folkwang Essen.
  • 28.05.2021 – 09.01.2022 Writing the History of the Future – ZKM Karlsruhe.
  • 21.05.2021 – 19.09.2021 LOOK AT THIS - Pinakothek der Moderne, Munich.
  • 24.04.2021 – 03.10.2021 Nam June Paik - SFMOMA San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco.
  • 23.01.2021 – 24.05.2021 Nachleuchten. Nachglühen - Kunsthaus Baselland.
  • 18.01.2021 – 14.03.2021 The Essl Collection - Albertina, Vienna
  • 05.09.2020 – 24.04.2022 Love Stories – 10 Jahre SCHAUWERK – SCHAUWERK Sindelfingen.
  • 26.06.2020 – 02.08.2020 FLUXU reloaded – neue Perspektiven in der Dauerausstellung – Museum FLUXUS+ Potsdam.
  • 13.05.2020 – 08.05.2020 düsseldorf photo+ 2020 - düsseldorf photo+, Düsseldorf.
  • 12.05.2020 – 07.05.2020 Nam June Paik TV Wave – Nam June Pail Art Center, Yongin.
  • 08.11.2019 – 15.03.2020 Der montierte Mensch / The Assembled Human - Museum Folkwang, Essen.
  • 17.10.2019 – 09.02.2020 Nam June Paik - Tate Modern, London.
  • 20.07.2019 – 30.11.2019 ZERO GRAVITY - ERES-Stiftung, Munich.
  • 16.02.2019 - 20.02.2020 Nam June Paik Media ‘n’ Mediea - Nam June Paik Art Center, Yongin.
  • 28.03.2019 - 28.07.2019 The Body Electric - Walker Art Center, Minneapolis.
  • 17.09.2018 - 17.1.2018 Before Projection: Video Sculpture 1974-1995 - SculptureCenter, Long Island.
  • 26.05.2018 - 16.09.2018 E.A.T. (Experiments in Art and Technology): Open-ended - National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Seoul.
  • 20.04.2018 - 19.08.2018 Flashes of the Future. Die Kunst der 68er oder Die Macht der Ohnmächtigen - Ludwig Forum, Aachen.
  • 15.02.2018 - 26.09.2018 More than 30 minutes - Nam June Paik Art Center, Yongin.
  • 08.02.2018 - 15.04.2018 Before Projection: Video Sculpture 1975-1995 - List Visual Arts Center, Cambridge.
  • 03.06.2017 - 01.01.2018 Nam June Paik. In Character -  San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco.
  • 02.05.2017 - 04.03.2018 Extraordinary Phenomenon. Nam June Paik - Nam June Paik Art Center, Yongin.
  • 22.10.2016 - 29.01.2017 Kunst in Europa 1945–1968 - ZKM | Karlsruhe.
  • 05.07.2016 - 23.04.2017 Point-Line-Plane-TV - Nam June Paik Art Center, Yongin.
  • 01.10.2015 - 17.01.2016 TELE-GEN. Kunst und Fernsehen - Kunstmuseum Bonn.

 

Awards

  • 2007: Order of Cultural Merit, Seoul.
  • 2004: Edward MacDowell Medal in the Arts, Peterborough.
  • 2001: Lifetime Achievement in Contemporary Sculpture Award, International Sculpture Center, Hamilton.
  • 2001: Wilhelm-Lehmbruck-Prize of the city Duisburg.
  • 1998: Kyoto-Prize, Kyoto.
  • 1995: Ho-Am-Prize, Seoul.
  • 1993: Golden Lion, Biennale Venice.
  • 1992: Picasso-Medal of the UNESCO.
  • 1991: Kaiserring of the city Goslar.
  • 1989: Kurt-Schwitters-Prize, Hanover.
  • 1981: Will-Grohmann-Prize, Berlin.

 

Films

  • Nam June Paik. Open your eyes, Documentation by Maria Anna Tappeiner, 61min., Germany 2010.
  • Nam June Paik: Seoul NyMax Performance 1997, performance record by Stephen Vitiello, 17min., USA 1999.
  • April is the Cruelest Month, by Shigeko Kubota, 52min., USA 1999.
  • Nam June Paik: 2 Piano Concerts: 1994/95, performance record by Stephen Vitiello, 20 min, USA 1997.

 

Literature

  • Sounding the Gallery: Video and the Rise of Art-Music, Holly Rogers, New York 2013.
  • Nam June Paik, exhibition catalog, Susanne Rennert und Sook-Kyung Le (Publ.), Ostfildern 2010.
  • Nam June Paik. Videokunst in Museen, Eunji Kim, Berlin 2010.
  • Nam June Paik: Exposition of music, electronic television, exhibition catalog, Dorothea Brunialti (Publ.), Cologne 2009.
  • Nam June Paik. There is no rewind button for life. Hommage für Nam June Paik, Wulf Herzogenrath & Andreas Kreul (Publ.), Cologne 2007.
  • Paik on paper: Sammlung Peter Wenzel, exhibition catalog, Kunstmuseum Bochum (Publ.), Cologne 2006.
  • Nam June Paik. Electric warrior, Willi Blöß, Aachen 2006.
  • Nam June Paik, global groove 2004, exhibition catalog, Heidi Ziegler (Publ.), Ostfildern-Ruit 2004.
  • Nam June Paik – Fluxus/Video, exhibition catalog, Wulf Herzogenrath & Sabine Maria Schmidt (Publ.), Bremen 1999.

 

Collections

Germany

 

France

 

Greece

 

Japan

 

Korea

 

Netherlands

 

Austria

 

USA

 

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