After studying music and philosophy in Japan, Nam June Paik collaborated with the avant-garde composer Karlheinz Stockhausen in Cologne and took part in Fluxus performances and events using musical instruments, such as “prepared pianos,” and modified television equipment. It was in Germany, precisely when Fluxus was at its apex, where Paik met and collaborated with artists such as Joseph Beuys and Wolf Vostell, but it was his encounter with John Cage that unleashed new ideas and a complete, renewed outlook on art. After arriving in New York in 1964, Paik “discovered” the Sony Portapak portable video camera and started making videos. It was in New York that Paik embarked upon a collaboration, destined to last years, with the avant-garde cellist Charlotte Moorman, with whom he realized numerous works of performance that, at the time, were considered scandalous.<\/p>\n
By adopting a series of ironic and disarming artistic modalities, Paik developed an approach that deconstructs and mixes the flowing of images, re-creating the language of the television communication universe. Establishing a vision marked by theories of global communication, with a sensitivity and creativity that absorbs the somewhat confrontational side of Pop Art, his work explores the sudden transitions and junctions between mass art and culture in an age where the medium is the message.
\nFollowing his initial works dealing with the modification of electronic signals by means of magnets placed on television sets, he arrived at innovatory works thanks to the video synthesizer, a piece of equipment he had developed as early as 1969, together with electronics engineer Shuya Abe.<\/p>\n
By re-elaborating heterogeneous materials with a “neo-Dada” spirit and irony Paik created a radical synthesis of video language based on the audiovisual grammar and syntax of television, while at the same time transforming its language.
\nThe artist’s network of friendships and artistic references\u2014John Cage, Merce Cunningham, Allen Ginsberg, Allan Kaprow, Julien Beck, and Judith Malina of the Living Theatre\u2014have been progressively cited in richly constructed works in which the recurrent and emblematic themes and motifs of Pop iconography are alternated with figures of the international avant-garde. [F.B.]<\/p>\n
Rare Performance Documents 1961\u20131994. Volume 1: Paik-Moorman Collaborations<\/em>, 1961-1994, compiled in 2000 Rare Performance Documents 1961\u20131994. Volume 2<\/em>, 1961\u20131994, compiled in 2000 Button Happening<\/em>, 1965 Video Synthesizer and “TV Cello” Collectibles<\/em>, 1965\u20131971 Digital Experiment at Bell Labs<\/em>, 1966 Film Video Works #3<\/em>, 1966\u20131969 Video-Film Concert<\/em>, 1966\u20131972 9\/23\/69: Experiment with David Atwood<\/em>, 1969 Global Groove<\/em>, 1973 A Tribute to John Cage<\/em>, 1973 (reedited in 1976) Merce by Merce by Paik<\/em>, 1978 After studying music and philosophy in Japan, Nam June Paik collaborated with the avant-garde composer Karlheinz Stockhausen in Cologne and took part in Fluxus performances and events using musical instruments, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"collezione":[],"class_list":["post-101300","artista","type-artista","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n
\nvideo, black and white, color, silent and sound, 25 min. 08 sec.
\nPurchased with the contribution of the Compagnia di San Paolo
\nPerformance Documentation, Aachen, Germany<\/em>, 1965
\nvideo, black and white, silent, 4 min. 14 sec.
\nSilent recordings of the preparation of the musical and performance events held by Paik and Charlotte Moorman in a university room in Aachen in 1965.
\nCharlotte Moorman at the Howard Wise Gallery<\/em>, 1969
\nvideo, color, silent, 1 min. 43 sec.
\nBrief color fragments of Moorman playing the cello and assorted percussion instruments during a performance in a private gallery.
\nTV Bed, The Everson Museum of Art<\/em>, 1972
\nvideo, black and white, sound, 1 min. 10 sec.
\nScenes of Charlotte Moorman playing her cello and talking with the public while stretched out on a surface made up of television monitors.
\nTV Cello Performance<\/em>, 1973
\nvideo, black and white, silent, 1 min. 42 sec.
\nExtracted from a performance by Moorman who is playing the cello (while Paik is busy smoking). Composed of various turned-on TV screens.
\nWaiting for Commercials (Performance)<\/em>, 1972
\nvideo, black and white, sound, 8 min. 20 sec.
\nMoorman with her cello and David Behrman at the piano alternate playing pieces of classical music during a television broadcast in which a video by Paik created with commercials is shown.
\nNew Television Workshop Performance<\/em>, 1971
\nvideo, color, sound, 7 min. 25 sec.
\nMoorman, after her entrance “on all fours” and dressed in military uniform, has her cello on her back. First she plays her instrument, then a bomb, and then Paik’s back.<\/p>\n
\nvideo, black and white, color, silent and sound, 18 min. 37 sec.
\nPurchased with the contribution of the Compagnia di San Paolo
\nHand and Fac<\/em>e, 1961
\nvideo, black and white, silent, 1 min. 42 sec.
\nWith a close-up shot on a completely white background, Paik passes his hand across his face, forehead, and eyes in an engrossed ritual.
\nFluxus Sonata at Anthology Film Archives<\/em>, 1975
\nvideo, black and white, sound, 6 min. 12 sec.
\nOn a series of record players and gramophones Paik plays some old records he then systematically breaks into pieces.
\nViolin Dragging, Brooklyn, NY<\/em>, 1965
\nvideo, color, sound, 1 min. 37 sec.
\nThe artist drags a violin tied to a piece of string through streets and fields.
\nTribute to GM (aka Video Venus)<\/em>, 1978
\nvideo, color, sound, 2 min. 56 sec.
\nThe artist performs a score on a piano while a naked woman is seated on the same piano.
\nNam June Paik with The Bad Brains<\/em>, 1991
\nvideo, color, sound, 1 min. 19 sec.
\nPaik is seated next to the drums of the musical group during one of their concerts held at the American Museum of Moving Images (September 14, 1991).
\nAn Evening with Nam June Paik at The Kitchen<\/em>, 1994
\nvideo, color, sound, 4 min. 35 sec.
\nThe artist plays the piano while a large screen projects images filmed with a micro video camera he has with him.<\/p>\n
\nvideo, black and white, silent, 2 min.
\nPurchased with the contribution of the Compagnia di San Paolo
\nIn a half-bust view of rapid and synthetic recording, the artist buttons and unbuttons his jacket.<\/p>\n
\nin collaboration with Jud Yalkut
\nvideo, color, silent, 23 min. 25 sec.
\nPurchased with the contribution of the Compagnia di San Paolo
\nEarly Color TV Manipulations<\/em>, 1965\u20131971
\nvideo, color, silent, 5 min. 18 sec.
\nColor elaboration of TV signals.
\nVideo Commune (Beatles from Beginning to End)<\/em>, 1972\u20131992
\nvideo, color, silent, 8 min. 36 sec.
\nThese period recordings by Jud Yalkut represent the earliest documentation of Paik’s interventions: first with magnetized television monitors and then with his first interactive performance in the WGBH television studio in Boston.
\nThis video also marks the “on air” debut of Paik’s video synthesizer\u2014Abe\/Paik\u2014that took place in August 1970.
\nTV Cello Premiere<\/em>, 1971
\nvideo, color, silent, 7 min. 25 sec.
\nThis film is the precious documentation of Paik’s first TV Cello<\/em> performance together with Moorman at the Bonino Gallery in New York in 1971.<\/p>\n
\nvideo, black and white, silent, 4 min.
\nPurchased with the contribution of the Compagnia di San Paolo
\nPermitted to use the Bell Company laboratories, Paik creates a short but essential\u2014almost minimal\u2014experiment with electronic images in which numbers and dots move on a black background.<\/p>\n
\nin collaboration with Jud Yalkut
\ntransferred from 16 mm film, video, black and white, color, silent and sound, 5 min. 36 sec.
\nPurchased with the contribution of the Compagnia di San Paolo
\nMissa of Zen<\/em>, 1966\u20131969
\ntransferred from 16 mm film, black and white, color, silent, 2 min. 28 sec.
\nFragmentary images giving a sense of a phantasmic presence appear on a television screen, filmed from an oblique viewing point. Their moving presence on the screen is rendered even more abstract by the distance and darkness that surrounds them.
\nElectronic Moon<\/em>, 1966\u20131969
\nvideo, black and white, color, sound, 3 min. 08 sec.
\nArtificially colored images of the moon are accompanied by Glenn Miller\u2019s famous \u201cMoonlight Serenade.\u201d<\/p>\n
\nin collaboration with Jud Yalkut
\nvideo, black and white, color, sound, 34 min. 50 sec.
\nPurchased with the contribution of the Compagnia di San Paolo
\nVideo Tape Study #3<\/em>, 1966\u20131969
\nvideo, black and white, sound, 4 min.
\nImages of a press conference held by the President of the United States, Lyndon Johnson, and the Mayor of New York, John Vliet Lindsay, are distorted and manipulated.
\nBeatles Electroniques<\/em>, 1966\u20131969
\nvideo, black and white, color, sound, 3 min.
\nIn this short video, Paik manipulates and modifies the presences of the most famous pop stars of the sixties.
\nElectronic Moon #2<\/em>, 1969
\nvideo, color, sound, 4 min. 30 sec.
\nWith a piece by Debussy heard in the background, Paik re-elaborates images of the moon.
\nElectronic Fables<\/em>, 1966\u20131972 and 1992
\nvideo, black and white, color, sound, 8 min. 45 sec.
\nThis work mixes elaborations of images with sound fragments of sentences by John Cage.
\nElectronic Yoga<\/em>, 1972\u20131992
\nvideo, black and white, color, sound, 7 min. 30 sec.
\nImages of a person in the lotus position are alternated with figures of colored abstractions.
\nWaiting for Commercials<\/em>, 1972
\nvideo, color, sound, 6 min. 45 sec.
\nConstructed as a condensed collection of Japanese TV commercials of the early seventies, this work is one of the first examples of Paik’s ironic approach to appropriating television images of consumer products in order to re-present them as objects of Pop Art.<\/p>\n
\nin collaboration with David Atwood, Fred Barzyk, and Olivia Tappan
\nvideo, color, sound, 80 min.
\nPurchased with the contribution of the Compagnia di San Paolo
\nProduced by Paik while a guest artist of the WGBH television channel in Boston, this work was integrally televised only in recent years. The title refers to the date of the broadcast: September 23, 1969. This visual collage is a blend of spontaneous experimentation, which combines electronic manipulations of pre-existing television material and pure abstractions, including images filmed live in the TV studio. The result is a multiform and amalgamate visual and sound symphony.<\/p>\n
\nin collaboration with John Godfrey
\nvideo, color, sound, 28 min. 30 sec.
\nPurchased with the contribution of the Compagnia di San Paolo
\nCharacterized by an inexhaustible sound and visual rhythm, this video shows a series of dancers engaged in performing the most varied styles\u2014from rock’n’roll to jazz, contemporary, tap, and traditional Korean dances\u2014along with the alternating and unexpected appearance of Allen Ginsberg, John Cage, or Jud Yalkut interviewing Charlotte Moorman. The continuous electronic elaboration and overlapping, together with the incessant presence of the music, produce a sensation of contagious vital energy.<\/p>\n
\nvideo, color, sound, 29 min. 02 sec.
\nGuest: Alvin Lucier.
\nPerformers: John Cage, Marianne Amacher, Richard Teitelbaum, Pulsa, Charlotte Moorman, David Behrman, David Tudor, Cathy Berberian, Jud Yalkut, Francis Lee, David Rosenboom, Jackie Cassen, Stan VanDerBeek, and Alfons Schilling.
\nPurchased with the contribution of the Compagnia di San Paolo
\nIn this portrait of John Cage, Paik superimposes live performances, interviews, and anecdotal memories with friends and colleagues of the great musician and offers examples of musical executions and works for television with Cage and his aleatoric and participatory research.<\/p>\n
\nin collaboration with Charles Atlas, Merce Cunningham, and Shigeko Kubota
\nvideo, color, sound, 28 min. 45 sec.
\nPurchased with the contribution of the Compagnia di San Paolo
\nPart One: Blue Studio: Five Segments<\/em>, 1975\u20131976
\nby Charles Atlas and Merce Cunningham
\nvideo, color, sound, 15 min. 38 sec.
\nA series of short choreographies expressly carried out by Cunningham for the video shows the dancer multiplied on the screen, accompanied by a sound collage of the voices of John Cage and Jasper Johns.
\nPart Two: Merce and Marcel<\/em>, 1978
\nby Shigeko Kubota and Nam June Paik
\nvideo, color, sound, 13 min. 05 sec.
\nPaik and Kubota dedicate the second part of the work to the relationships among art, movement, and gesture while the question “This is dance?” is repeated. Included in the video are aerial images of the streets of New York and a baby’s first steps.<\/p>\n
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