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Showing posts from September, 2011

Pioneer of Video Art: Nam June Paik

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Electronic Superhighway, 1995,a gift from the artist to the Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington. This 49-channel installation is neon, steel and other electrical parts. In the Tower: Nam June Paik is at the National Gallery of Art until October 2nd. This Korean-American artist introduced the realm of tv/video art with sculptures made of televisions in 1966. The exhibit encompasses themes and ideas important to art of the last 50 years. His last video sculpture made in 2005, Ommah (mother in Korean) uses a 100-year-old boy's robe, hanging like a cross, with a projection of Korean-American girls at play, linking past and present . It is in the National Gallery's permanent collection To fully appreciate his work one must see the exhibition in the museum's East Wing. His art is about tv/video, a relatively new medium in visual art. A room of Paik's drawings accompany the exhibition and help the viewer understand his thought process. One of the most interesting