nam june paik
nine rare works
Korean-born avant-garde artist and composer, Nam June Paik, pioneered into
video as an art form in the 1960s by combining multiple TV screens with sculpture,
music and live performers. Trained in music, aesthetics and philosophy, he was
a member of the 1960s art movement Fluxus, which was in part inspired by
composer John Cage’s use of everyday sounds in music. Another Fluxus
adherent and admirer of Nam June Paik was the young Yoko Ono.
The 2001 issue of Point of Contact: On Silence featured in its cover and backcover the art of Nam June Paik in a tribute to John Cage. The series Five Screens also appeared in that issue. These works were created especially for Point of Contact and are now part of the Point of Contact collection.
Paik incorporated television sets into a series of robots. The early robots were constructed largely of bits and pieces of wire and metal; later ones were built from vintage radio and television sets. The five photo-collage pieces titled Adios 20th Century feature this robotic imagery signed by the artist’s own improvised sketch in a moment of spontaniety. Upclose, one can see the adhesive tape used in the composition. Adios 20th Century appeared in the 1993 issue of Point of Contact: The American Baroque, and the cover for that issue was Paik’s Art Deco Clock, in itself a baroque event that plays into the notion of the theater within the theater.
This artist at the origin of Video Art continued to dominate the global scene with his varied and elaborate video sculptures, environments and installations more than twenty-five years later. Paik always remained true to his Fluxus-inspired critical position. He died in February of 2006.