NAM JUNE PAIK Biography - Other artists & entretainers

 
 

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NAM JUNE PAIK

Name: Nam June Paik                                                                   
Born: 20 July 1932                                                                     
Died: 29 January 2006                                                                 
                                                                                       
Nam June Paik (July 20, 1932 - January 29, 2006) was a South Korean-born               
American artist. He worked with a variety of media and is considered to be the         
first video artist. He is considered by some to have been the author of               
the phrase "Information Superhighway", which, according to his own account, he         
used in a Rockefeller Foundation paper in 1974.                                       
                                                                                       
Born in Seoul, Paik had four older brothers and a father who worked as a textile       
manufacturer. As he was growing up, he was trained as a classical pianist. In         
1950, Paik and his family had to flee from their home in Korea, during the             
Korean War. His family first fled to Hong Kong, but later moved to Japan, for         
reasons unknown. Six years later, he graduated from the University of Tokyo. He       
wrote a thesis on composer Arnold Schoenberg.                                         
                                                                                       
He moved to Germany to study History of Music at Munich University. While             
studying in Germany, Paik met the composers Karlheinz Stockhausen and John Cage       
and the conceptual artists Joseph Beuys and Wolf Vostell. Paik was inspired to         
work with electronic art.