Nam June Paik

by Erika P.



Nam June Paik was a South Korean artist. He was born on July 20th of 1932 in Korea. He worked on many mediums of art but was often recognized for inventing the medium, also known as video art. He had a father who was a textile manufacturer and four brothers. As he was growing up, he was trained as a typical paintist. In 1950, Nam and his family had to flee from Korea, due to the Korean War. First they fled to Hong Kong; then later Japan. Six years later, he graduated from the University of Tokyo with his histories of art and music. That same year, he moved to Germany, where he met three composers named Karlheinz Stockhausen, Joseph Beuys, and JohnCage. Paik was then inspired to go into electronic art. In 1964, Paik move to New York, and began working with a standard cellist Charlotte Moorman, to combine hisvideo, music, and performance. In 1965, Sony introduced the Portapak, Paik's greatest weapon. He could both move and record things; it was the first portable video and audio recorder. From there, Nam June became an international celebrity, known for his creative and entertaining works. In 1988, he showed his love for his first home, South Korea, with a piece called "The more the better", a giant tower made entirely of one thousand three monitors for the Olympic Games being held at Seoul. In 1996, Nam June Paik had a stroke, which left him partially paralyzed. He died on January 29, 2006, in Miami, Florida, due to natural causes.