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GALERIE THOMAS MODERN
JOSEPH BEUYS - NAM JUNE PAIK
On the occasion of the 30th anniversary of the death of Joseph Beuys on January 23, and the 10th anniversary of the
death of Nam June Paik on January 29, 2016, Galerie Thomas Modern will present an exhibition dedicated to the work of
these two artists – on show from February 19 until May 7, 2016.
PAUL GARRIN, Joseph Beuys & Nam June Paik, Sogetsu Hall Tokyo, Japan, 1984, © Paul Garrin
As major exponents of the FLUXUS movement,
Joseph Beuys and Nam June Paik are among the
most influential artists of their generation. Joseph
Beuys was the all-dominant artist in Germany in
the second half of the 20th century, and one of the
pioneers of performance art. His aesthetic and political approach to art and his artistic theories have
long been an influence on artists and critics. The
same applies to Nam June Paik, considered to be
the father of video sculpture, who with his happenings, media installations and environments instigated a novel artistic language and started a new
movement in contemporary art.
From their earliest artistic beginnings within the
FLUXUS movement, Beuys and Paik met and
esteemed each other. Beginning with Paik’s first
Düsseldorf concert in 1959, his bond with
Beuys was much more than their common
performances between 1963 and 1985 or
their engagement with FLUXUS. Certainly,
their common interest in music did play a major
role – Paik presented Beuys to his teacher, John
Cage. But beyond that, artistic ideas such as
the combination of Eastern and Western
thought, the interest of both in spirituality, meditation, and the widening of the material possibilities of art, and finally, their outspoken
intention to exert influence on society with their
art, are themes which closely tie Nam June Paik
and Joseph Beuys together, despite the diversity
of their respective works.
1
Joseph Beuys’ oeuvre has frequently been
shown in Munich, and significant works are
permanently on display at the Lenbachhaus and
at the Pinakothek der Moderne. Even though
Nam June Paik studied music in Munich for
some time, his work was never presented here
in a major exhibition.
Galerie Thomas will exhibit sculptures, drawings, multiples and prints which provide an insight in both artists’s oeuvre and demonstrate
the proximity of their artistic approach. The
works on display in the exhibition were partly
created in direct contact or refer to the work
of the other artist; others will independently
represent the key subjects in both oeuvres. 
EURASIA
JOSEPH BEUYS, Untitled (Black Squares), collage, grey green
cardboard on black paper bags, lined with tin foil, 1962,
33 x 38 cm / 13 x 15 in.
JOSEPH BEUYS
AND
NAM JUNE PAIK
A LIFE LONG
COLLABORATION
Shinya Watanabe
JOSEPH BEUYS Eurasienstab über den Alpen II, Aluminium, colour and postcard, 1971,
40 x 50 cm / 15 3/4 x 19 5/8 in.
Having both experienced World War II, Joseph
Beuys and Nam June Paik were aware of the
contradictions of modernity. Two World Wars
were caused by modern nation-states in Europe,
and they questioned how to overcome the divides between nations, between Europe and Asia,
and between East and West, which were divided by communist and capitalist ideologies. Both
Germany and Korea were divided at that time,
so for them, it was an imminent challenge to reunite these states. This became the driving force
of their collaboration EURASIA; an archetypical
and abstract challenge of connecting West and
East, capitalist and communist, Europe and Asia,
or two opposite poles into one.
Following their first meeting in Düsseldorf in 1961, Joseph Beuys and Nam
June Paik quickly became friends,
overcoming the 11 years of age difference. Sharing a common interest in
Mongolia, shamanism and reincarnation, they began their lifelong series
of collaborations called EURASIA. Considering Europe (=West) and Asia
(=East) one continental culture, they
tried to connect them as EURASIA.
Deeply relating to their biography, their question
and challenge of EURASIA is very complex,
historically and philosophically. Saying “Modernism cannot solve the problem”, Beuys approached Eastern pre-modern philosophy and
religion through Rudolf Steiner’s anthroposophy.
While criticizing materialism in the Western
capitalist block, Beuys tried to overcome
the Western philosophy of existence under the
influence of Steiner’s Ost-West-Aphorismen
[East-West Aphorism]. By connecting the
”intuitive Eastern man” and his counterpart, the
”rational Western man”, Beuys tried to unite
highly developed Western economy and the
2
highly developed Eastern spirituality as a means
of resistance against materialism. Beuys realized
these visions in his 1958 Projekt Westmensch,
and here made the statement ”Plastik = Alles
[Sculpture = Everything]”, which later became
the concept of ”Soziale Plastik [Social Sculpture]”. In 1958, he created the sculpture Eurasier,
which became the first work using the name
of Eurasia, and also using felt as sculptural
material.
Born in 1932 in Korea under Japanese occupation, Nam June Paik was aware of the issue of
modernity and subsequent colonialism. Even
though they were Korean nationals, Paik’s family
had fled to Japan at the outbreak of Korean War.
Paik’s family, one of the richest merchant families
in Korea, had supported the Japanese military
occupation of Korea, and the communists considered them traitors. While visiting Hong Kong as
his father’s interpreter, Paik realized that his father
dealt in weapons which were used to fight
against communist North Korea. At that time, he
decided not to continue his father’s business, but
to become an artist instead, to change the world.
At the outbreak of the Korean War in 1950,
Paik’s family fled from Seoul to Japan, which was
then under American occupation. His house in
NAM JUNE PAIK, The Tiger Lives, oil on acrylic plate, LCD-monitor, DVD-player, 1 DVD, 2000, 61 x 72 cm / 24 x 28 3/8 in., with different stills of the DVD
Kamakura was located in the territory of a Zen
temple, where he had his first encounter with Zen
Buddhism. While studying musicology, art history, and philosophy at the University of Tokyo,
Paik also saw himself confronted with television
for the first time.
To continue his studies, Paik moved to West Germany in 1958. Being aware of his Korean descent, Paik understood his entire being as a way
to re-conceive contemporary art, which had
evolved as Western Art since the Renaissance.
Paik said ”I question again myself why was I
interested in ‘most extreme’? It is because of
my Mongolian DNA. – Mongolian – Ural – Altair
horseback hunting people moved around the
world in prehistoric age from Siberia to Peru
to Korea to Nepal to Lapland. They were not
center-oriented like Chinese agrarian society.
They saw far and when they saw a horizon far
away, they had to go and see far more.”
In May 1962, Beuys saw Paik’s performance
One for Violin, in which Paik held up the violin
vertically like a sword for a while, then smashed
it on the table, and then turned off the light. It was
almost a re-enactment of ‘Kaisyaku’, the assistance in committing hara-kiri, by beheading the
man. Likening the violin to the samurai sword,
Paik smashed the violin onto the table, and broke
its neck, almost like the Kaisyaku-man cut the
neck of the man committing suicide. From then
on, Beuys and Paik began to share the metaphor
of the musical instrument as a human body, like
Man Ray, who substituted Kiki’s back for the violin of Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres. In summer
1962, they made their first collaborative work
Earth Piano. They had the idea of constructing a
piano made of earth in the earth, and after the
exhibition, it would be covered by earth. After
they had this vision, they decided not to realize
it, because it was too beautiful to realize. The
musical instrument as a human body continued
in Piano Action, in which Beuys destroyed Paik’s
piano with an axe, and also their Infiltration
Homogen, Felt Piano and Felt Cello.
Paik’s 1976 visit to the Guadalcanal Islands, the
site of the fierce battles between the Japanese
and American armies, inspired his most political
video collage, Guadalcanal Requiem. While
Paik drags a violin over a former battleground,
an American woman, Charlotte Moorman wearing a G.I. uniform, is crawling with Joseph
Beuys’ felt cello on her back. After crossing the
beach, Moorman played Sonata – Joseph Beuys
on an airplane wreck that they had accidentally
found. Guadalcanal Requiem became the intersection of Paik and Beuys, directly related to their
personal experiences of World War II.
3
In 1982, Joseph Beuys proposed ‘Permanent
Cooperation’ to the Dalai Lama, and invited
him to the opening of Documenta 7, where he
started 7000 Oaks. There, Beuys tried to connect Tibetan ”Spiritual Economy” with his Social
Sculpture. Knowing of Beuys’ financial problems, Paik offered Beuys that he would go to
Japan to find a sponsor. Becoming the largest
sponsor of 7000 Oaks, Seibu Company of
Japan opened the Joseph Beuys exhibition at
the Seibu Museum in Tokyo. On this occasion
their last collaborative work of EURASIA, called
Coyote III, a voice performance of ‘Coyote’ by
Beuys with Paik’s piano improvisation, took
place at Sogetsu Hall in Tokyo in 1984. After
the death of Beuys in 1986, the Dalai Lama
purchased seven oaks, ”commemorating Joseph Beuys, his 7,000 Eichen project, and his
permanent cooperation with H.H. the Dalai
Lama”.
Beuys’ and Paik’s pioneering activity of EURASIA lights up the path we are taking after the
end of modernity by overcoming the divides
between nations, ideologies, East and West,
and Europe and Asia, and uniting all of these
into one, and their challenge becomes even
more meaningful these days.

JOSEPH BEUYS
JOSEPH BEUYS, dumme Kiste, copper, felt, 1983, 65.2 x 106.8 x 42.5 cm, copper 50 x 92 x 36 cm / 16 3/4 x 42 x 25 3/4 in., Edition of 4 + 1
JOSEPH BEUYS, Untitled (Double Object),
two felt sheets, two metal clips, 1979,
felt 30.1 x 22.4 x 1 cm / 11 7/8 x 8 7/8 x 3/8 in. each
JOSEPH BEUYS, Laßt Blumen sprechen, violet blossom
mounted on paper, blue and red ink, 1974,
20.8 x 29 cm / 8 1/8 x 11 3/8 in.
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JOSEPH BEUYS, Felt magnet
(Double Object), two felt pieces in
metal box, 1984, 42.5 x 34 cm /
16 1/2 x 13 3/8 in.
Joseph Beuys, who was born in Krefeld in 1921
und died in Düsseldorf in 1986, after studying
sculpture with Ewald Mataré became one of the
most outstanding performance (which he called
‘action’) and installation artists and one of the
most influential artistic personalities of the postwar era.
On the basis of a holistic and anthroposophical
outlook, and influenced by a personal crisis,
Beuys developed what he called the extended definition of art and the concept of social sculpture.
His efforts to reunite the estranged sphere of nature and of spirit via art led Beuys to the art form
of action and the participation of the audience,
who was encouraged to activate its own creative
potential. Thus Beuys’ famous dictum ”Everybody
is an artist” can be understood as a challenge
and a philosophic creed, according to which the
creative process of the individual should lead to
a personal and social change and eventually to
the healing re-establishment of a united world.
With his installations, multiples, objects and works
on paper Beuys on one hand documented his efforts on this path and on the other hand strove to
make art accessible to everyone. With Beuys, the
single work of art thus becomes a symbolic testimony of the encompassing artistic project, rendered distinctive by its completely unique artistic
language and material.

”I have deliberately tried to say something in
the picture of the Shaman, which goes like this:
we have a materialistic concept of science,
which claims that everything the Shaman claims
is non-existent. But now a man appears who
has grown up with this concept of science and
before studying art, I studied natural science.
So I know the methodology of the exact natural
sciences very well. Now a man appears who
thoroughly knows the methodology of materialism and again demonstrates what the Shaman
is demonstrating, that there are completely
different dimensions of life, from which Man is
at present systematically cut off by the political
systems. That is what I wanted to represent.“
(from: Joseph Beuys, Auch wenn ich meinen
Namen schreibe zeichne ich, exh. cat. Zurich
1989, p. 34.)
JOSEPH BEUYS, Tamponierte Ecke, Zinc plate, sulphur, gauze, 1970, 2 parts:
a) 64 x 31 x 18 cm / 25 1/4 x 12 1/4 x 7 1/8 in., b) 63.5 x 30.5 x 17.5 cm / 25 x 12 x 6 7/8 in.
JOSEPH BEUYS, Untitled (Double Object), two
drawings, each with stamps, 1968,
6 x 11.5 cm / 2 3/8 x 4 1/2 in. each
Three Hares window,
Paderborn cathedral
The ”Three Hares” motif in the Work
of Joseph Beuys
In his drawing Joseph Beuys refers to a motif, common since the early medieval times, of three
hares arranged in a circle in such a way that although they share three ears, each appears to
have two ears. Presumably the motif came from the Buddhist far east to the west via the silk
road and can be found a hundredfold on Christian churches, in manuscripts and in handicraft –
probably the most famous example is the so-called hare window in the Paderborn cathedral.
Originally a symbol of the eternal cycle of time, of growth, decay and renaissance, in the
Christian context connotations of fertility and the Trinity are added. Joseph Beuys, who often
used the hare prominently in his work as a symbolic animal for this and many other connotations,
certainly also used the motif of the three hares because of its pan-Eurasian union of Eastern and
Western culture. Thus it is a leitmotiv which Beuys has brought to paper with his symbolically
charged brown cross paint in gestural abstraction, but in a form easily recognizable through
the title. Like the ‘Braunkreuz’ (Brown Cross) itself, the three hares are charged with the quality
of completion, of reunification, and as in the brown crosses, Beuys re-invests a ubiquitous,

passed-down cultural symbol with his own, new, and holistic interpretation.
5
JOSEPH BEUYS, Three Hares, Braunkreuz paint on paper,
1963, 32.3 x 22.4 cm / 12 3/4 x 8 3/4 in.
NAM JUNE PAIK, untitled, Chalk and
acrylic on canvas, 1980, 66 x 58 cm /
26 x 22 2/3 in.each
NAM JUNE PAIK, Fin de siecle man 1, mixed media, 1992, 93 x 80 x 27 cm / 36 5/8 x 31 1/2 x 10 5/8 in.
NAM JUNE PAIK, I never read Wittgenstein …, Wall painting in seven colours, German television set,
DVD, 1997, Dimensions variable, Edition of 15
6
NAM JUNE PAIK, Born Again, bronze, patina, TV
monitor, antennas, plug, 1991, 48 x 59 x 15 cm /
18 7/8 x 23 1/4 x 5 7/8 in., edition of 24
NAM JUNE PAIK
CHOI JAE-YOUNG, Nam June Paik, Good,
Performance in honour of Joseph Beuys, Seoul,
July 20, 1990
Nam June Paik, who was born in Seoul in1932
and died in Miami in 2006, is considered the
father of video art even though he began his
artistic career as a musician and composer.
During his studies in Germany, he came into
contact with John Cage and the Fluxus movement. With his concerts, which crossed the border far into the realm of happening, he became
one of the main proponents of Fluxus, together
with Joseph Beuys and George Maciunas. At
the same time he began experimenting with
electronic music and television technology, and
created his first video sculptures, technically
manipulating the television image or using his
own cinematic material, which would become
groundbreaking for the whole future of video
art.
Via the contrast of the technically advanced
communication media and their combination
with traditional cultural elements and symbols,
Paik was able to develop a pictorial language
as personal as it is universal, which manages
to break up the rigid patterns and often unconscious restraints of both forms of communication.
Paik’s artistic goal of stimulating the liberal development of the consciousness of the individual, and thus changing society, is evident in
all his works and explains his affinity to Joseph
Beuys’ creative output.

NAM JUNE PAIK, Radio Man, 2 radio cabinets, 3 radios, 2 plasma monitors with DVD players, African
wooden mask, felt hat, acrylic, 2 DVDs, 1987, 194 x 75 x 55 cm / 76 3/8 x 29 1/2 x 21 5/8 in.
7
GALERIE THOMAS MODERN
JOSEPH BEUYS
February 19
- May 7, 16
NAM JUNE PAIK
NAM JUNE PAIK Beuys Howl
laser printed canvas with 3 masks,
photos, acrylic paint, Sony Watchman, DVD player, video program on
DVD, 1991, 142 x 198 x 19 cm /
56 x 78 x 7 1/2 in.
JOINT ACTIONS AND
1962
FLUXUS: Internationale Festspiele Neuester
Musik, September 1 - 23, 1962, Museum
Wiesbaden
1984
Joseph Beuys: Coyote III / Nam June Paik:
Piano Duet, June 2, 1984, Seibu Museum
Sôgetsu Hall Tokyo
1963
FESTUM FLUXORUM FLUXUS – Musik und
Antimusik – Das instrumentale Theater,
February 2 - 3, 1963, Art Academy Düsseldorf
1985
Simultankonzert an drei Klavieren, Henning
Christiansen, Nam June Paik, Joseph Beuys
(participating by telephone from Düsseldorf),
November 29, 1985, Academy of Fine Arts
Hamburg
1963
Nam June Paik, Exposition of Music – Electronic
Television, March 11, 1963, Galerie Parnass
Wuppertal (Piano Action with Joseph Beuys at
the opening)
1965
24 Stunden, June 5, 1965, Galerie Parnass
Wuppertal
1966
Joseph Beuys, Infiltration Homogen für Konzertflügel – Der größte Komponist der Gegenwart
ist das Contergankind, July 28, 1966, Art Academy Düsseldorf (on the occasion of a concert
by Charlotte Moorman and Nam June Paik)
1978
In memoriam George Maciunas, piano duet
Joseph Beuys & Nam June Paik, Fluxus-Soirée
of Galerie René Block, July 7, 1978, Art
Academy Düsseldorf
JOSEPH BEUYS, Continuum, Engraved steel plate, 1984/92, 43 x 86 x 0.3 cm / 16 7/8 x 33 7/8 x 1/8 in.,
Edition of 40
NAM JUNE PAIK, Beuys, airbrush acrylic, computer controlled, and ink on canvas with frame, 1989,
50 x 68.6 cm / 20 x 27 in.
10
JOSEPH BEUYS, Green Violin (Prototype), Violin
painted green in galvanized iron box, 1974,
62 x 36 x 16 cm / 24 3/8 x 14 1/8 x 6 1/4 in.
EXHIBITIONS
while ”western man”, as a ”brain being” overemphasizes the rational, intellectual principle.
The connection and fusion of these diverging
principles in order to achieve a (healing) holism
can only be reached in the Eurasian, who enables the third essential principle to come to the
fore: anima, the soul.
THE ”EURASIAN” AS RECURRENT THEME
IN THE OEUVRE OF JOSEPH BEUYS
This unique work marks the beginning of a group
of editions, created by Joseph Beuys since 1971.
The point of origin was a double page spread
about him in a Japanese art periodical. Beuys
used the printing plate of the article for the print
on a thick brown-beige paper. He re-worked the
print by thickly covering the block of Japanese
print in the upper left corner with flower of sulphur. This work appears to be the source for three
consequent works by the artist.
was a fundamental goal which he propagated
in the idea of the Eurasian. In his thinking, which
was greatly influenced by anthroposophical
ideas, Beuys saw ”eastern man” as an emotional
being, in which the spiritual principles prevail,
In this conception the teachings of the famous
physician and alchemist Paracelsus play an
important role, his influence on Beuys is significant. For according to Paracelsus the burning
principle of the soul is present in the material
world in the form of the basic material sulphur,
which Beuys used in his works for that reason.
In a concentrated way, the present work expresses this theory and the personal claim of the
”alchemist” and ”shaman” Beuys in his sculptural
use of sulphur as a symbolic Eurasian material
and the presence of the eastern and the western
principle.

In the Multiple Druck 1 und Druck 2 (Print 1 and
Print 2) [1971, Schellmann 36] the same print is
used, this time on two folios, printed in black, the
yellow part printed with sulphur. The handwritten
inscription ”Der Eurasier läßt schön grüßen.
Joseph” (Greetings from the Eurasian. Joseph) is
essential for placing the whole group of works in
context.
In the Schautafeln für den Unterricht I + II (Display
Boards for Instruction I and II) [1971, Schellmann
31], another work in two parts, the printing plate
itself is used. Beuys mounted the zinc plate onto
one of the printed photographs of Ostende
(where he had planned an action in 1963, to
which he is alluding here). The sulphur is also
added, this time as a collaged compact area at
the lower end of the printing plate.
Finally Beuys takes up the elements of our work
again in his multiple Der Eurasier (The Eurasian)
[1972/84, Schellmann 496]. This work, like
Display Board for Instruction I consists of the zinc
printing plate for the Japanese magazine page
with an attached area of sulphur.
The extensive article about Joseph Beuys by
Ichiro Haryu, which appeared in 1970/71 in
the japanese magazine Bijyntu Techo (BT), features an illustration of the Felt Suit of 1970,
among others. But for Beuys, the press coverage
in an Asian country was obviously the most important aspect, which explains his inscription on
Print 1: the Eurasian, who sends his greetings, is
of course Beuys himself, whose (western) artistic
position is being noticed in the East, in Japan and
thus anticipates the state of (re-)union of the Eurasian continent (in a humanistic-philosophical
sense) in his own person.
For Joseph Beuys this holistic overcoming of the
division between eastern and western thinking
JOSEPH BEUYS, The Eurasian (Sulphur Work), silkscreen, sulphur and pencil on paper, 1971,
60 x 47 cm / 23 5/8 x 18 1/2 in.
We would like to thank Ms. Soon Joo Kim, B/S Kunstraum, for supporting this exhibition project.
Impressum
Prices upon request.
We refer to our sales and
delivery conditions.
Dimensions: height by width.
Photography: Walter Bayer
Design: Sabine Urban, Gauting
Colour Separation: Reproline mediateam GmbH, Munich
Printing: SDM, Stulz-Druck & Medien GmbH, Munich
11
Copyright
© 2016 Galerie Thomas Modern and authors
Works by Nam June Paik: © Nam June Paik Estate 2016,
Works by Joseph Beuys: © Joseph Beuys Estate / VG BildKunst, Bonn 2016
NAM JUNE PAIK, Sonatine for Goldfish,
television casing (RCA Victor, 1946),
aquarium, 1992, 40 x 49 x 41 cm /
15 3/4 x 19 1/4 x 16 1/8 in.
NAM JUNE PAIK, Cage - 7, Sony Watch
Man and acrylic on lamp, 1994,
50 x 20 x 15 cm / 19 5/8 x 7 7/8 x 6 in.
(with antenna)
NAM JUNE PAIK, Before the World there
was Light, after the World there will be Light,
Television set (Dumont 1948), candle, 1992,
44 x 60 x 50 cm / 54 x 38 x 14 1/2 in.,
Edition of 16
NAM JUNE PAIK, Techno Dog, round TV-set, TV-set, 1 video player, 1 video tape (20 min.), 2000,
2 parts: 55 x 38 x 60 cm and 40 x 50 x 60 cm / 21 5/8 x 15 x 23 5/8 and 15 3/4 x 19 5/8 x 23 5/8 in.
12
PAIK, REMINISCENCE OF MUNICH
Erinnerung an München (Reminiscence of Munich)
With a video film, Nam June Paik was one of the contributors to the arts program, curated by the renowned
composer Josef Anton Riedl from Munich, to accompany the summer Olympic Games in Munich in 1972.
Like many other participating artists, Paik wrote an accompanying text, which was published in an anthology
with the other contributions. In this text, which is again
printed here as it was published in 1972, Paik wrote
about his residence of nearly one year in Munich and

its significance for his later artistic work.
13
JOSEPH BEUYS, Wirtschaftswert Signiertusche (Economic Value Signature Ink),
block of signature ink and glass pen in wooden box, 1983, 14 x 21 x 5 cm /
5 1/2 x 8 1/4 x 2 in., edition of 50
JOSEPH BEUYS, Sonnenscheibe (Sun Disc), record master-mould with 2 brownstamped pieces of felt, 1973, 38 x 38 x 4 cm / 14 1/2 x 14 1/2 x 1 1/2 in.,
edition of 77 + VII + 3 H.C.
JOSEPH BEUYS, Painting Version 1- 90, oil paint
and butter on laid paper, torn hole, 1976,
76 x 56 cm / 30 x 22 in.,
Edition of 90 + XII + 3 A.P.
JOSEPH BEUYS, Intuition, wooden box with pencil drawing, 1968, 30.5 x 21.2 x 6 cm /
12 x 8 3/8 x 2 3/8 in., unlimited Edition,
c. 12.000 copies
JOSEPH BEUYS, Untitled, pencil on paper, 3 parts, 1974/75, 76.2 x 56.5 cm /
30 x 22 1/4 in.
14
JOSEPH BEUYS, Untitled (from artist mail), plastic
envelope with margarine and white chocolate,
1969, 32 x 23 x 1 cm / 12 5/8 x 9 x 1/4 in.,
edition of 100 + 20 AP
JOSEPH BEUYS, Mirror Piece, glass bottle, silver, copper and
varnish, iodine crystal, 1975, Box 23 x 15 cm Ø
Bottle 20 x 10.5 cm Ø / 7 1/4 x 4 1/8 in. Ø
NAM JUNE PAIK, Babokachi, screenprint and chine-collé auf on paper, 1995,
95 x 75 cm / 37 3/8 x 29 1/2 in., Edition of 99
NAM JUNE PAIK, The flowers of Hwa Dong are as everlasting as rose of Sharon,
portfolio of 11 colour lithographs, 1998-1999, 42 x 52 cm / 16 1/2 x 20 1/2 in.
each, edition of 125 + HC
NAM JUNE PAIK, Triangle Trinity, 3 Silkscreen and offset on laid paper, 1998, 40 x 50 cm / 15 3/4 x 19 5/8 in. each, Edition of 60 + X + 12 A.P.
Nam June Paik
and Charlotte Moorman
Between 1964 and 1974 the cellist Charlotte Moorman was involved in numerous
concerts and performances by Nam June
Paik. Special attention was paid to those
actions, in which Moorman and Paik, in the
tradition of Dada and Surrealismus and antiestablishment ideas of Fluxus and other contemporary happenings, performed partially
unclothed. However, Paik’s efforts to combine concert, performance, and fine arts, is
of greater artistic significance. Moorman
and Paik themselves thus became the first,
living, video sculptures. In this context, Nam
June Paik’s TV Bra gained prominence, a
brassiere made of two working television
sets, which Charlotte Moorman put on for
a cello concert.
The comprehensive portfolio of photographs
documents these legendary cooperations of

Paik and Moorman.
Nam June Paik, Portfolio of 81 photographs and works on paper, with Peter Moore, Photography, silkscreen,
colour pencil on paper, 1964 - 1974, photographs 70 x 50 cm / 22 1/2 x 19 5/8 in. each, signed by Nam
June Paik, Charlotte Moorman, Peter Moore, Edition of 15
15
FLUXUS
JOSEPH BEUYS, Felt Wedge, compressed felt, Urklavier, record in
wooden box, 1984-86, 5.5 x 8.5 x 25 cm / 2 1/8 x 3 3/8 x 9 7/8 in.,
edition of 47 + 9 A.P.
NAM JUNE PAIK, Internet Dweller: wol.five.ydpb, 2 Panasonic 10 in. TVs, 6 KTV 5 in.
TVs, 3 Vintage TV cabinets, projector, DVD player, DVD, 1994, 167.6 x 134.6 x 76 cm /
66 x 53 x 30 in.
‘Fluxus’ first appeared as a term for a new, all-embracing art form in 1960 as the
title of a magazine published by George Maciunas. In principle it postulates shared
experiences of art, realized with actions and happenings, which were meant to
be available to the whole of society and to change society.
George Maciunas wrote his Fluxus Manifesto in 1963 during the ‘Festum Fluxorum
Fluxus’ in Düsseldorf, which was co-organized by Beuys and Paik. In it, he deduced
the demands of the artistic movement from the different meanings of the term ‘flux’
= (the) flowing, in a dictionary:
‘Fluxus’ aims to purge the world from the existing middle class and commercialized
art forms, to trigger a revolutionary flood of anti-art, available to everyone, and finally, to fuse cultural (artistic), social and political revolutionary currents – a goal
also pursued by Beuys and Paik.
Beuys’ extended definition of art and Paik’s aesthetic transformation of the modern
media world essentially embody the requirements of art expressed by Maciunas.
NAM JUNE PAIK, Maciunas Painting # 1, 4 colour TVs, digital canvas derived from
Paik video, frame with acrylic paint and collage, original video on DVD, 1992,
137 x 96 x 37 cm / 54 x 38 x 14 1/2 in.
GALERIE THOMAS MODERN
Tuerkenstrasse 16 · 80333 Munich · Germany · Phone +49-89-29 000 860 · modern@galerie-thomas.de · www.galerie-thomas.de
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