Description

Surveying the work of video-art pioneer Nam June Paik, this volume highlights the artist’s radical engagement with process.

Nam June Paik (1932-2006) broke new ground in late-twentieth-century art, working on a global stage to transform video into an art medium. This book reflects on Paik’s working method as well as the ideas and materials that inspired his art practice. It highlights the centrality of process and exploration across his career–through seminal pieces from the early 1960s to the late-style painted TVs, large-scale sculptures, and drawings–and provides an opportunity to follow Paik’s lifelong engagement with new media and the development of his own visual language. Highlights include Paik’s painted sections of the Berlin Wall (2005); Beuys Projection (1990), Paik’s powerful video interpretation of his performance with Joseph Beuys in Tokyo; and his celebrated One Candle, Candle Projection (1988-2000), a live video installation of candlelight.

The book features an essay by John G. Hanhardt, one of the foremost scholars of Paik’s work. Extensive illustrations include numerous full-page plates and details, as well as rarely seen archival photographs of Paik by Peter Moore (1932-1993), dating from 1964 through 1977.