Nam June Paik dead
I just found out last night that Korean-born video artist Nam June Paik (백남준) died on Sunday at the age of 74. Antti has already commented on this.
I went to see the major exhibition of Paik’s work in Seoul a few years ago and became quite fascinated by the man and his work. I think before that I had just assumed he was a video artist who put together lots of old TV’s into sculptures (which of course he did), but I discovered that he had also been closely involved in a number of interlinked 20th century art movements which I find interesting: Stockhausen’s electronic music, John Cage’s avant garde music of chance and the Fluxus movement.
One thing I remember clearly about the exhibition was how the reality of Nam June Paik’s life as a cosmopolitan 20th century artist jarred so much with some of the commentary dotted around the place by a Korean art critic (I can’t remember who unfortunately). I remember specifically that the critic tried to link Paik’s messy and cluttered style of art to the ‘Korean psyche’ in general and its apparent affection for disorder and earthiness. There had to be, of course, something ‘essentially Korean’ about his art. Hmmm…. I thought it was a bit of a shame really that the critic had to be reduced to finding things in his work that were emblematic of things Korean, and that a man who was so clearly broad in his interests and life experience should need to be narrowed and pinned down. As Antti points out, there is no doubt about the fact that Paik was a Korean, but he was also (to use a bit of clunky phrase) a citizen of the world who had lived and studied in Hong Kong, Japan, Germany and the US.
Here is a nice appreciative opinion piece on Paik from the Korea Times that takes some of his Korean critics to task and an entry in Wikipedia that will hopefully be expanded in the near future. There was also an AP obituary in the Washington Post. Apparently, Paik’s ashes will be buried in a number of countries, including the US, Germany and Korea.
By the way, the pictures are from flickr, more here.
