Nam June Paik: Venus

http://www.vernissage.tv | At Art Cologne 2009 Galerie Hans Mayer 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 provides us with a short introduction to the work. Nam June Paik (1932-2006) worked with a variety of media and is consiered 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.