NAM JUNE PAIK BIOGRAPHY

June 20th, 1932
Born in Seoul (Korea), the fifth son of a textile manufacturer

1950
The Paik family flees from the Korean War, first to Hong Kong, and later to
Japan

1956
Paik graduates from the University of Tokyo, concluding his studies of the
History of Art and the History of Music with a thesis on Arnold Schonberg

1956-58
Studies the History of Music at Munich University; meets Karlheinz
Stockhausen; studies Composition at Freiburg Conservatory

1958-63
Meets John Cage; works in the Studio fur elektronische Musik at WDR,
Cologne

1959-62
Has appearances with pieces of his action music; Stockhausen's "Originale"
is performed in Cologne

1963
Participates in "Fluxus. Internationale Festspiele neuester Musik",
Wiesbaden; "Exposition of Musik / Electronic Television", the first
exhibition including TV monitors, is shown at Galerie Parnass, Wuppertal

1963-64
Travels to Japan; meets Shuya Abe; experiments with electromagnets and
color television; visits New York, collaborates with Charlotte Moorman

1965
First solo exhibition "Electronic Art" in the USA at Galeria Bonino, New
York; buys the first portable video recorder

1966-69
First multi-monitor installations; works with magnetically distorted TV
recordings; "Electronic Opera No. 1" is performed at the live program "The
Medium is the Medium", GBH-TV, Boston

1969-70
With Shuya Abe, constructs the video synthesizer

1971
Works at WNET's TV lab, New York

1976
Retrospective at Kolnischer Kunstverein, Cologne

Since 1979
Chair at Staatliche Kunstakademie, Dusseldorf

1982
Retrospective at the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York

January 1st, 1984
Satellite broadcast of "Good Morning Mr. Orwell" from the Centre Pompidou,
Paris, and a WNET-TV studio, New York

1987
Elected a member of the Akademie der Kunste, Berlin

1988
Erects a media tower, "The more the better", from 1003 monitors for the
Olympic Games at Seoul

1990
"Video Arbor" is put up in Philadelphia as a sculpture for the public
sector

1991-92
Double exhibition "Video Time - Video Space" at Kunsthalle Basel and
Kunsthalle Zurich, subsequently shown in Dusseldorf and Vienna

Receives Goslar Kaiserringes Award

1993
Nam June Paik with Hans Haake represents Germany in XLV Venice Biennale
d' Arte

1998
Receives Kyoto Award

2000
Receives National Arts Club Award
Retrospective The Worlds of Nam June Paik, opens at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York then travels to Ho-Am Art Gallery and the Rodin Gallery, Seoul Korea

Numerous grants and awards from, inter alia, the Guggenheim Museum, the
Rockefeller Foundation, and the American Film Institute; Will Grohmann
Award, Goslar Emperor's Ring, UNESCO's Picasso Medal

Paik lives and works in New York, teaches at Staatliche Kunstakade­mie,
Dusseldorf, and has a second home in Bad Kreuznach