Nam June PaikKnown as the “Father of Video Art”. And he was, but more than that.
He earned a PhD in Renaissance music and philosophy, spoke a dozen languages, and led a 1960s avant-garde art movement called Fluxus, which included Yoko Ono. His early art was criticized by art critics, but his later work, from an installation featuring a Buddha statue propped up in front of a television, to his cutting-edge work using video and music, has been beloved. I was. Some call it prescient.
Sixteen years after his death, the new documentary Moon is the Oldest TV examines his life through newsreels, interviews, video clips and recordings.Host Robin Young talks to film director Amanda Kim About Pike’s life.
Nam June Paik (Courtesy of the Smithsonian American Art Museum)
Check it out on YouTube.
This article was originally published on WBUR.org.
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