Notes

The present lot is accompanied by the catalogue Klaus Bubmann and Florian Matzner (ed) (1993) Nam June Paik. Eine Data base. La Biennale di Venezia, Deutscher Pavillon, 13.6-10.10.1993, Germany: Edition Cantz.

Born in Seoul, Korea, Nam June Paik began his career as a musician and trained as a classical pianist. His family fled to Japan on the outbreak of the Korean War. He attended the University of Tokyo, followed by post-graduate studies in Munich, Germany where he joined the Fluxus avant-garde collective, and was influenced by the experimental composer John Cage. Paik is best known for his sculptural installations that included television monitors and video tape recorders, and the experimental incorporation of objects and external sounds into his compositions and videos. Paik embraced many different media and could be considered to be the founder of video art. He moved to New York in 1964, where he collaborated with Charlotte Moorman for many years as a performance artist. One such collaboration was the simultaneous international satellite broadcast in mulitple countries of the performance Good Morning Mr Orwell on New Year’s day in 1984 and challenged George Orwell’s dystopian projections.

The subject of this artwork is the American avant-garde visual and performance artist, Laurie Andersen.