Nam June Paik Video

Nam June Paik: Venus / Galerie Hans Mayer / Art Cologne 2009

http://a23.video2.blip.tv/2470001130178/Henrichy0205blip-NamJunePaikVenus218.mp4?bri=9.5&brs=2196

At Art Cologne 2009 Hans Mayer Gallery showed a piece by Nam June Paik, a painted aluminium infrastructure with a multi painted satellite dish, 24 color TV sets and laser disc player. In this video, Hans Mayer gives us a short introduction to the work.

Nam June Paik (1932-2006) worked with a variety of media and is considered to be the first video artist. He was trained as a classical pianist. Nam June Paik and his family had to flee from their home in Korea in 1950. They fled to Hong Kong, and later moved to Japan and then to Germany. While studying in Germany, Nam June Paik met the composers Karlheinz Stockhausen and John Cage and the artists Joseph Beuys and Wolf Vostell. Wolf Vostell inspired him to work in the field of electronic art.

The Hans Mayer Gallery was established in 1965 in Esslingen, Germany. Because of exhibitions on Op Art, Contemporary Contstructivism, and Kinetic Art, the gallery became very well known in the 1960s. In 1967 he co-founded the world’s first art fair in Cologne, the Kunstmarkt Köln, now Art Cologne. Since 1971 Hans Mayer is based in Düsseldorf. In 2008, Hans Mayer received the European Gallery Award of the Federation of European Art Galleries Association. In the 1970s, 80s, and 90s the gallery programme expanded continuously. In 1969 Hans Mayer was the first to show Andy Warhol in Düsseldorf. In 1989 Nam June Paik joined the gallery. The gallery then added American artists such as Frank Stella, Ellsworth Kelly, Sol LeWitt, Robert Rauschenberg, Roy Lichtenstein, and Tom Wesselmann and representatives of a younger generation, including Keith Haring, Michael Basquiat, Kenny Scharf, Robert Longo, Bill Beckley and Tony Oursler to its programme. European painting is represented by C.O. Paeffgen, Gia Edzgveradze, and Markus Oehlen. Apart from gallery exhibitions, Hans Mayer deals in European and American art after 1945. The gallery is also specialized in large outdoor sculptures.