Official word thru the media: Nam June Paik
MIAMI (AP) -- Nam June Paik, the avant-garde artist who was credited with being the inventor of video art, has died. He was 74.
The Korean-born Paik died Sunday night of natural causes at his Miami apartment, according to his Web site.
Song Tae-ho, head of a South Korean cultural foundation working on a project to build a museum for the artist, said he learned of Paik's death from Paik's nephew, Ken Paik Hakuta, in New York.
Paik played a pivotal role in using video as a form of artistic expression. A member of the Fluxus art movement, Paik combined the use of music, video images and sculptures.
Paik's work has gained international praise from the Guggenheim Museum in New York, and the Museum of Broadcast Communications in Chicago, among others, and much of his work is on display at the Nam June Paik Museum in Kyonggi, South Korea.
''No artist has had a greater influence in imagining and realizing the artistic potential of video and television than Korean-born Nam June Paik,'' the Guggenheim Museum Web site says. ''Through a vast array of installations, videotapes, global television productions, films, and performances, Paik has reshaped our perceptions of the temporal image in contemporary art.''
