Nam June Paik

Nam June Paik is famous as the founder of video art. He studied philosophy, music and art history at the university of Tokyo and then in Munich and Freiburg. In Germany he met the avantgarde composers Kalrheinz Stockhausen and John Cage, with whom he would frequently work.
Paik turned to experimental music and in 1962 became involved in the foundation of Fluxus, a neo-Dadaist art movement under the leadership of George Maciunas. His Opera Sextronique (1967) and Concert for TV Cello and Videotapes (1971), performed by the American avantgarde cellist Charlotte Moorman, brought him worldwide fame. Paik largely found his inspiration in electronic media. The television, the emergence of which he consciously experienced, plays a large role in his work. He makes illustrative use of radios, video equipment, televisions and sound tapes and combines these pieces of equipment with special recordings.